Rebecca and the Order of the Phoenix
by RogueMetamorph
Summary: Rebecca Sherwood's father has never been kind towards her, so why is he so kind to her now? And why is Rebecca's mum so nervous and afraid? But soon everything is explained and Rebecca's whole world is changed forever. Harry/OC soon.
1. Black

**Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter 1-7. I only own the idea of Rebecca. Jk Rowling owns the rest. **

**This movie is probably my favorite, I don't know why. Maybe because it feels more serious than the rest? Or maybe I like watching children being abused? (kidding, i swear). Anyway, I also love this one because this is where Rebecca's story comes into full affect! I can now add her and less backstory! Now, if ya'll haven't guessed what's going to happen yet, you haven't ready enough Harry/OC's to know what all of these are leading up to. I hate that i followed the crowd, but I jst couldn't help the warm feeling I got for doing it. **

**BTW; I'm sorry it ended up being so long, but I know that when you read it you will realize it was worth it.**

**Anyway, enjoy and review, my pretties!**

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><p>Name: Rebecca Adhara Sherwood<p>

Parents: Gregory and Ambrosia Sherwood

Gifts: Witch and a Metamorphmagus

Blood-Status: Pure Blood

Status: Well off (Rich)

True Features: Unknown

Current Features:

Hair: Short Straight Blond

Eyes: Golden

Age: 15

School: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

House: Gryffindor

Patronus: Unknown

Friends: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger

Family friends; Draco Malfoy (unfortunately), Cedric Diggory (deceased)

Times her father has looked creepily happy over the summer: Tons

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><p>I was sitting in my room, in utter silence, staring down at the Daily Prophet in my hands. On the front page was a picture of Harry Potter, and the line 'Harry Plotter?' Voldemort was back, though no one except Dumbledore and I seemed to believe so without the proof of seeing him, like Harry did, or being a Death Eater, like my father was. The Daily Prophet was constantly slamming Harry and Dumbledore for saying that he was back. I understood why though, everyone who wasn't a Death Eater was too afraid to admit it to themselves.<p>

But it was stupid. All of it. He was back. He was killing, he was rallying everyone up, and no one had the intelligence to admit it to themselves. I mean, people were constantly going missing, or getting killed, which was instantly being blamed on Sirius Black. Even when ten Death Eaters were broken out of Azkaban, it was blamed on none of than Sirius Black.

My mother, Ambrosia Sherwood, though she wouldn't say anything, believed that Voldemort was back, and she was scared out of her mind. Over the summer she had gotten paler and skinnier with the fear she held. She had even told me to have the bag she had given me (with the Undetectable Extension charm put on it) packed and ready at all times. She wouldn't say it was for if Voldemort decided to pay a visit, she just said it was because the date for returning to Hogwarts would come up on me before I knew it.

But despite all of that, I couldn't help but think how wonderful my life had been, over the past four years, which had been the best in my life. You know that moment in your life where everything is going your way, or you realize it has, and it all seems too good to be true?

The past four years had been like that… kinda. I mean, I actually had friends, I had gone on adventures, stopped an evil wizard from coming back from the almost-dead twice… ish, saved an innocent man from death, learned about my mother's happy past, been asked to a dance by a boy, and at this moment, my father didn't hate the living daylights out of me.

Although, all of that happiness had come at a cost. My father hating me for almost fifteen years, my mother's unhappiness, my getting nearly killed over ten times in the past four years, disappointing my father at almost every turn, nearly eaten by gigantic spiders, being used as a gateway back to the living by an evil wizard, nearly killing half the muggle borns in my school against my will, my best friend nearly getting killed in a freak tournament and Voldemort (that evil wizard I was talking about) coming back from the almost-dead… among other things.

Despite all of bad stuff in my life… I smiled.

I threw the newspaper against my black and red satchel which sat against my dresser, waiting for me to pick it up, and go to Hogwarts. It had been, like I said before, packed for a while, packed with everything I would need, weither if it was me escaping from evil wizards, or just going to Hogwarts.

BOOM! The house shook as an explosion happened nearby, and I knew it couldn't be good when I heard a high pitched evil cackle coming from downstairs.

You know that moment when everything is going right and it's to good to be true… and then it falls to shit? Yeah, I was waiting for that.

I heard spells being shot back and forth, and instantly I grabbed my wand from the pocket in my bag and ran to my door thrown it open. I raced to the stairs which over looked the entry hall which was now covered in rubble from what used to be the door and the wall around said door.

I watched in horror as my mum fought off three Death Eaters, one of which I easily recognized as Bellatrix Lestrange, a high ranking Death Eater, a powerful witch and a crazy bitch. I immediately ran down the stairs at full speed, throwing spells, which took the two other Death Eaters out.

Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, however, a spell hit me, knocking my wand out of my hands before arms grabbed me and a wand pressed painfully against my throat. I froze in place as I felt someone's hot breath against my ear and prayed to the gods that it wasn't a werewolf.

"Hello, Rebecca, dear," I heard a familiar voice say into my ear, making me freeze in horror.

It was my father.

I had always know that my parents weren't right for each other and that my father was an evil man, not to mention a Death Eater, but I couldn't believe that he was letting my mother be attacked by other Death Eaters, and was keeping me from helping her.

Sick bastard.

"Let's just watch your mother for a minute," he muttered.

And so we did. I watching in fear as my mother dodged the Killing Curse a couple of times, and winced as she barely deflected other curses. I could tell it was taking a lot out of her to keep up such a fight with Bellatrix Lestrange. But it didn't last long.

"Stop or I'll kill her!" my father suddenly yelled, making the two dueling women stop to look over at him.

My mother's eyes widened as her eyes traveled from my father, to me, to the wand at my neck. "You wouldn't kill your own daughter, Gregory," my mum murmured, though I could tell she knew he would.

"You're right, Ambrosia. To bad she's not my daughter," he growled.

"_Crucio_!" Bellatrix cried, and my mother crumpled where she stood in a yelp of pain. I cried out too, and fought against my fathers hold to no avail. After a moment, Bellatrix smiled and danced over to her and snatched her wand from her hand. "My, my, my, Ambie. It thought you'd be harder to beat,"

"She's been having a rough time lately," my father commented with a shrug.

"Not to mention it's not everyday I fight a crazy lunatic," my mother murmured.

"Shut up!" Bellatrix yelled angrily, using the Cruciatus Curse on my mother again, making her twitch, much like the spider from last years Defense Against the Dark Arts class had. I had to look away then too. "Why, is this your daughter, Ambie?" I heard Bellatrix ask. I looked up to see her slowly walking up to me, looking a little like a cat as she watched me closely.

"Get away from her, you bitch!" my mum shouted as she pushed herself part of the way off of the ground to glare at Bellatrix as she reached me.

Bellatrix cackled happily as she let the tip of her strange looking wand running over my cheek bone until she tapped it against my cheek. "She looks a lot like you Gregory, like your mum before she died," she smiled.

"Not really. She's a Metamorphmagus," my father growled.

"Ah! Like our cousin, Nymphadora!" Bellatrix smiled before her face curled into an angry snarl. "Filthy half breed,"

"Our?" I asked quietly.

Bellatrix smiled again before turning back to my mother. "Now, I think you have a few things to tell your daughter Ambie… before you die," Bellatrix said happily, nearly singing the last part, making my stomach churn.

"Yes," my father growled. "It's time she new who she really was, what she really was… a bastard child,"

"What are you talking about?" I exclaimed.

My mother slowly looked up at me, sadness in her eyes as she took a deep breath. "Gregory Sherwood… is not your real father, Rebecca," my mother said slowly, looking away from me half way through the sentence.

"What?" I asked in shock.

"Your real father is Sirius Black," she said, looking back up at me.

"Sirius Black," Bellatrix spit. "A blood traitor, and my cousin,"

"But… I was born after you and father were married," I said quickly.

"Aw yes," my father laughed humorlessly. "The best part of it all. The fact that you could have easily been conceived on our wedding night,"

My mother looked away from my father… step father?… and I, glaring at the floor next to her. "I was with Sirius before our wedding,"

My mind reeled at this whole thing. My evil, hateful father, wasn't my father, but it was actually a kind man that I had saved from death not two years ago. I was Sirius Black's daughter. I was a Black! Black's were known for being Death Eaters, I mean… Bellatrix, Narcissa… Malfoy.

Damn it, I was related to Malfoy!

But why was my mother married to my- to Gregory?

"Why did you marry him?" I asked.

Mum looked up at me with hopeful eyes. "I was apart of a group that was against You-Know-Who during the first wizarding war. After I broke up with Sirius, Gregory asked for my hand in marriage. Everyone agreed that it would be a good way to get information," she told me. "Then, before the wedding… we came together for the last time,"

"And then there was you," Bellatrix smiled angelically, giving me shivers.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I yelled. "Since I can remember, I always thought my father hated me! That was a disappointment to him! But he was never actually my father!"

"I didn't tell you because until a year ago, everyone thought Sirius Black was a felon. Most still do!" she said back.

"What about the past year?" I cried.

"I… I don't know," she said, looking defeated.

"And that's why you always had me use my Metamorphmagus powers to look like your mother… so that I'd look more like you and less like my real father," I growled at- Gregory.

"If I had to live with a bastard child, I was at least going to have it look like me," he growled into my ear, pressing his wand harder into my throat, making my jerk a little.

I ignored Gregory and looked back to my mother as Bellatrix grabbed her chin, murmuring something to her. "Does he know?" I asked quickly, making the two woman look up at me.

"No," my mother said, jerking away from Bellatrix so she could talk properly and look at me. "I never told him. The only person I ever told was Remus Lupin,"

I nodded, I had had an inkling that he had known more than he was telling me about my mother and Sirius when he had been my DADA teacher.

"Go to them," my mother told me quietly, as tears formed in her eyes and fell down her face.

"I don't think your darling daughter will last that long, Ambie," Bellatrix smiled down at her, using her wand to brush a piece of hair out of my mum's face.

"Go to hell," she growled.

Bellatrix however, just cackled loudly as she stood up and walked toward me with an evil smile on her face. "Anything else, Amdie?" Bellatrix smiled, as she danced away from my mum.

"Rebecca?" I looked to my mum as I felt a pain begin to burn painfully in my chest. "Can I see you? The real you? Once last time?"

I nodded slowly, and let the sensation I always felt when I morphed run over me, that feeling of an egg cracking over my head and the insides running over me like water.

I knew what my mum, Gregory and Bellatrix all saw now that I had changed into what I actually looked like. They would see waist length curly (a little frizzy) brown hair that nearly looked black in anything but a brightly lit room. My eyes no longer looked like gold coins, but were bright blue like my mothers were. I also now looked more so like my mother, a little softer and skinnier than the angular face I had once had that represented my- Gregory's family. I was also a lot shorter, I was probably only five foot five now, versus what I had made myself, five foot seven.

"I love you, Rebecca!" my mother cried.

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

"NO!" I screamed in vain.

The bright flash of light his my mother and circled around her for a moment before she dropped, lifeless against the marble floor, covered in debris. Her eyes stared into nothingness, the light in her bright blue eyes gone, her skin white as a sheet of paper, her body angled oddly from where she had fallen.

Mum was gone forever.

My eyes grew hot as tears blurred my vision, until the fell down my cheeks like rivers of pain. I sagged in my father's arms as nearly all hope and love left me, as I listened to that happy high pitched giggling from the woman who had ended my mothers life.

"Now for my dear, dear cousin,"

My eyes opened slowly, glaring at Bellatrix as smiled happily at me as if she had something good to tell me. There was no way that I would die like this, that I would let myself be blown out like a candle on someone else accord.

As fast as I could, I elbowed Gregory as hard as I could in the stomach, causing him to let go of me and double over. I ran to the stairs, stooping down to pick up my wand in the way up the stairs. Bright green curses I knew all too well followed me as I ran up the stairs and ran into my room, slamming the door shut.

I ran to my bag and threw the strap over my head so that it lay across my body before grabbing my cloak and broom. I then ran to my window and unlocked it, throwing it open.

"Where are you, cousin?"

I didn't turn around. I just forced the broom between my legs and took off as fast as I could, flying over the back yard and away from the house. I did my best to dive and duck away from the curses following me as I heard Bellatrix and my father Wisping after me, but I mostly only missed them because of my horrible flying skills. I flicked spells and curses back at them, Stupefying Gregory out of the sky, and about twenty minutes later, knocking Bellatrix out of the sky with a Levicorpus.

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><p>Name: Rebecca Adhara <strong>?<strong>

Parents: Sirius Black**? **and Ambrosia Sherwood

Gifts: Witch and a Metamorphmagus

Blood-Status: Pure Blood

Status: Homeless

**True Features**:

Hair: Dark Curly Brown

Eyes: Blue

**Current Features**:

Hair: Short Straight Blond

Eyes: Golden

Age: 15

Questoins: Tons

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><p><strong>Author's Note: After writing this, I had to run out of my room and check on my mom and give her a huge hug. This really affected me and I hope that no one has to experience what Rebecca just did. <strong>

**Review about what you think about this chapter please. (Especially this one!)**


	2. Harry

About another hour of flying later, not really knowing where the bloody hell I was going, I stopped, nearly crashing into the ground, landing in the middle of a little park. I was bloody lucky the place was deserted, not knowing if this area was a muggle suburb or not. I quickly wrapped the cloak I still held around me before I sat down on the ground behind a bush, staring into the branches, letting sadness press down against my shoulder and my chest like a heavy weight.

Mum was dead. My father wasn't actually my father. My father was actually Sirius Black. I was a Black. I was related to Draco Malfoy. My name was Rebecca Black, not Rebecca Sherwood.

I hated my life.

I turned my head into my shoulder and sobbed quietly. Where would I go now? My mum was dead. Cedric was dead. The Weasley's wouldn't understand. I didn't know where Hermione lived.

Harry? He, out of everyone I knew, would understand me better than anyone else. Harry had lost both of his parents and had gone through and seen terrible things. I decided right then, I'd go to him. I at least needed to talk to him. I mean, after all, he did live with muggles.

I sat up, wiping my cheeks dry before I stood, pulling out my wand and taping it against the outside of my robe as I whispered; "_Videneme_," Instantly, the cloak began to blend into the bush behind me, seemingly, making me disappear. It was a Disillusionment Charm, which was now making my cloak like Harry's prize cloak, though mine didn't make me disappear as thoroughly as Harry's did, but it would do the job well enough.

I placed my wand on the palm of my hand and whispered; "_Point me_,"

The wand spun around until it pointed north.

"_Point me to Harry Potter's house_," I whispered.

It spun again until it was pointing northwest.

"Captain, we have our heading," I smiled to myself, even though pain still weighed on my heart. I made sure the cloak was wrapped securely around me and my bag before I got on my broom and flew into the sky and northwest, toward Harry's, hoping that he wouldn't get into to much trouble with me arriving at his muggle home.

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><p>About an hour or so later, I looked down to find myself over Little Whinging, from here however, it would be a little hard to find Harry's home. Indeed I knew the address, but all of the houses looked exactly the same!<p>

I finally decided to land in a nearby field, which I soon realized was actually a park surrounded by tall weeds that reminded me of wheat or grain. I landed in the tall weeds, crashing horribly, landing on my stomach with a groan. I slowly stood, shoving my broom into my bag before pulling the cloak tighter around me before looking around.

The park, which only had some swings and some odd ball toys that could only interest a child under five, was basically empty except for a teenage boy sitting alone on the swings, a group of stupid teenage boys come up the road from a little ways away, and a mother and her son.

The mother and her son made my heart stop before beating painfully in my chest as I watched. The mother and son left though, but the pain didn't. I sat there for a moment, wishing that my mother hadn't died not hours ago. I missed her already.

Soon though, my attention was captured by the group of boys that walked into the fences park, approaching the boy on the swings. I watched as they all laughed to each other as the leading of the pack, a much larger boy (larger in all directions) approached the boy on the swings as the others hung back.

"Hey Big D, beat up another ten year old?" the boy on the swings asked.

I stared in shock at the boys sitting on the swing as my mind registered the voice I just heard. It was Harry! I'd found him! He was taller now, and he had cut his hair. I was so used to his long tousled black hair that I hadn't recognized him. I moved through a gap in the fence and made my way over to stand near Harry, by the swings to get a better look at him and the group of boys who stood nearby. The four behind 'Big D' I didn't recognize, but 'Big D' I did recognize as Dudley, Harry's cousin, who he lived with.

"This one deserved it," Dudley's face puffed up in defense. His henchmen all nodded in agreement.

"Five against one? Very brave," Harry said sarcastically.

"Well, you're one to talk! Mumbling in your sleep every night- at least I'm not afraid of my pillow," his goons laughed with him.

I snorted, they were revolting- the worst sort of people. Cowardly.

"'Don't kill Cedric!' Who's Cedric? Your boyfriend?"

"Shut up," Harry snapped.

I clenched my fists, resisting the urge to do something stupid, like punch or curse the stupid prat. Cedric had been my friend long before he died, Dudley knew nothing about him, and would and could never be anything like him.

"He's going to kill me, Mum!" Dudely exclaimed happily, in his dumb slow voice as he made fun of Harry and his goons laughed. "Where is your mum? Where is your mum, Potter? Is she dead?"

Fire burned in me and I lunged before I knew what I was doing, swinging my fist at his face. I was surprised at my power, seeing that I had knocked him to the ground, though I noticed only after I moved away from him that I had morphed my arm into a muscle-y male arm. I smiled as I looked down at Dudley as his eyes darted around, trying to find the source of the hit. His friends helped him stand, only to flee once he was on his feet and running for the gate.

Harry's laughter made me turn. Did he know it was me? I calmed myself, making sure I was composed (and that the muggles had left) before I pulled off my cloak, letting it drop to the ground.

"Nice right hook,"

"Thanks," I beamed at the compliment.

At that moment, looking into his green eyes, I felt almost as if the world was perfect and my problems had melted away.

"It's good to see you," I smiled.

"It's good to see you too," Harry smiled, crossing the distance between us to give me a big hug, one that I savored before he stepped back and looked down at me curiously. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"I needed to talk to you…" I began, but I trailed off when storm clouds formed rapidly above us. I looked at the sky, and back to Harry. They were forming more rapidly than nature would allow- almost as if magic had caused it.

And then I felt it. That feeling of total happiness leaving you, and that cold that started in you blood, and then feels like ice water is trickling down your back.

"Dementors," I whispered, turning back to Harry.

And then we were running, trying to find anywhere to hide. Not knowing the area, I followed him. Rain poured down like heavy buckets of water, soaking my clothes and dragging me down. My feet pounded on the matted grass, now soiled with puddles and mud. It was becoming more and more difficult to run, my clothes slapping against me. Plus, I was not a runner.

"Hurry!" Harry yelled to me, willing me to run faster.

Not far ahead, I spied what we were running toward, a tunnel, where I would have guessed hobos lived. It wasn't my first choice, but it was dry and safe from the storm and hopefully from the Dementors until they passed. I slowed my pace once I was under the cement ceiling and stopped to catch my breath. But my comforted feeling didn't last ling as the lights flickered above us, and I felt the air become cold and heavy, as if death itself were present.

"Let's go," I whispered, but already I knew we were to late.

"Get behind me!" Harry shouted, knowing full well that I couldn't, not even if I tried, produce a Patronus charm.

But before I could react, I felt something ice could grab my shoulder and yank me backward, throwing me outside and into the rain.

"Rebecca!" I heard Harry yell before I heard choking sounds. Apparently there were two of them. I stared up at mine as I yanked my wand out, point it at the Dementor as I stared at it, fear turning my hair bright white.

I gasped as the Dementor began to suck at me happy memories, throwing all the pain I had even felt back into my face.

My stepfather's hate.

My feelings of never being loved.

Reliving my mother's death over and over.

But finally, darkness surrounded me in a warm blanket, and I passed out.


	3. The Dursleys

**Author's Note: I love this scene... just wanted y'all to know.**

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><p>"… Don't you think they'd be lovely, Vernon? Oh, here, she's waking up!" I heard an annoying voice say near my ear as I shifted positions to get more comfortable. I groaned as pain flooded my head like when I hadn't had enough water in a while, and opened my eyes to see a strange woman with a very angular face smiling at me.<p>

As my memories slowly came back to me, I immediately knew that wherever I was wrong. I had been in a damp concrete tunnel, being chased by Dementors along with Harry. But now, as I sat up, I realized I was laying on couch in the middle of the Dursley's living room.

"Get some water, Potter!" Harry's fat uncle, Vernon, ordered harshly as my eyes focused on him.

"You hit your head and my darling son Dudley, here, carried you back home so we could tend to you," Harry's aunt smiled.

I looked at her confused and glanced over at Dudley, who was sitting on an armchair, holding a steak against his eye. Harry's Uncle stood near the doorway, huffing from yelling at Harry.

Harry's aunt turned to her son and gave him a firm look, which caused him to drop the steak. "Yeah, _Potter_ pushed you and you fell," he said in his slow voice as he eyed me.

"We do apologize for our _nephew's _behavior," Harry's aunt assured me.

At that moment, Harry walked in with a glass of water and a bar of chocolate. I looked at him, not caring to hide my confusion. He handed me the glass of water which I eyed, before setting the chocolate down next to me, with plenty of glares from his uncle.

"Don't you have something to say, boy," his uncle grumbled.

"I'm sorry for pushing you," Harry began to apologize. "I'm a rather unstable and deranged boy. It's a good thing my cousin was there to put a stop to my madness, though it didn't go without sacrifice,"

I nearly broke into laughter. Did they really expect me to believe this garbage, I mean, I was bloody there!

"Are you alright, dear?" Harry's aunt inquired, looking at me like she was worried for my sanity.

"Oh, yes, I'm just a bit… shaken," I murmured, using my Metamorphmagus powers to subtly lighten my skin and dark beneath my eyes. "I mean, the complete change in your nephew was so startling," I cried, as if frightened.

This was hilarious.

I quickly took a drink of water before taking Harry's aunt's hand in mine as if I needed something to hold onto.

"Have some chocolate, it will help," Harry muttered, visibly trying to keep himself from laughing before me walked back behind the couch and out of my view.

I quickly picked it up and took a few bites until I felt happiness and calm come back to me, making me feel loads better. I was only when I heard the sound of an owl did I look away from my chocolate and over the back of the couch. A letter flew into the air as the owl flew back out of the house and turned around until it faced Harry.

"_Dear Mr. Potter, _

_The Ministry has received intelligence that at 6:23 this evening you performed the Patronus charm. As a clear violation of the Decree of the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, you are hereby expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. _

_Hoping you are well, _

_Mafalda Hopkirk_,"

It then dropped like a rock.

"Oh dear," Harry's aunt suddenly muttered behind me as I turned around.

Quickly, before they tried to convince me that I was some sort of magic trick Harry liked to play on people, I stood up. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to go wash my face. I think I'm a bit delusional from my fall," I sighed, holding a hand to my head.

"Right you are! Just upstairs, it is," Harry's aunt seemed pleased that I had dismissed everything as a trick of the mind.

"Thank you," I smiled, moving slowly past Harry's uncle and upstairs to the bathroom.

After ten minutes of sitting there, I came back down stairs to find only the Dursely's sitting around, all looking as if they were ready to leave. I stared at them from the doorway before Harry's aunt noticed me and rushed over happily, taking me into a hug.

"Oh dear, I nearly forgot that our family has been chosen as the winner of the All-England Best-Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. I was hoping you could accompany our little family to the award ceremony, maybe keep our Duddy company," Harry's aunt smiled.

I looked over her shoulder at her little Duddy and resisted the urge to let the look of disgust flash across my face. I then looked back up to her and smiled brightly at her.

"I'd love to Mrs…?" I pretended not to know her name, since I 'had only met the ten minutes ago when I woke up'.

"Dursley, dear," she smiled.

"I'd love to Mrs. Dursley, but I'm sure that my parents will be very worried about me and will want me home as soon as possible," I told her, getting a disappointed look from her.

"Are you sure, dear?"

"Quite," I smiled.

She looked very disappointed as she looked back to Dudley who didn't seem to be paying much attention except to the itch in his crotch. I looked away in disgust before smiling up at Harry's aunt again as she looked back to me.

"Well, alright," she sighed. "The phone is in the kitchen if you'd like to call them to pick you up,"

"Phone?" I asked confused.

"Yes, to call them?" she told me, sounding a bit like a question. After I thought about it for a moment however, I remembered what she was talking about, the muggle way of communication. My mother had shown me one and I had been able to try it out myself, though I don't know why I would want to speak to the Chinese.

"Oh, yes. Sorry," I smiled and gestured to my 'injured' head before walking into the kitchen and pretending to call my parents. After a minute later, I walked back out into the living room where they all waited for me. "They'll come to pick me up in about a half hour,"

"Alright, dear," Harry's aunt sighed sadly. "Well, we should be on our way or we'll be late. Don't worry about our nephew, we locked him in his room and won't bother you unless you let him out," she assured me as she picked up her purse and walked with her husband to the door.

"I'm sure I won't have any problems," I smiled as I stood next to the famous cupboard beneath the stairs and watched Harry's aunt and uncle walk out the door.

"Oh, and don't be afraid to come back and visit…" she trailed off as she looked back at me, and I instantly knew she wanted my name.

"Adhara," I told her.

"Strange name," Harry's uncle murmured as he waddled after his wife out the door and to the car.

"It's a witch name," I murmured.

Dudley, who was just walking out the door, stopped and stared at me with wide eyes, but I just smiled and shut the door on him.

I waited there until I heard the sound of their car disappearing down the street before I ran upstairs, searching for Harry. It really didn't take me long, even with so many doors. I figured it out when I spotted the one door with the massive amount of locks on the outside. I unlocked them all and carefully knocked before walking into his room, which was small, but very well organized. Harry was laying on his bed, asleep, and moaning, twisting on the bed.

I carefully walked over and shook him by the shoulder. "Harry? Harry," I whispered. Suddenly, his eyes popped open and he stared at me for a moment, fear the dominant emotion in his eyes before the fog cleared and he was staring at me.

"Rebecca?" he asked, as he sat up, grabbing his glasses off the side table.

"Yeah, who else?" I smiled as I sat down on the bed next to him.

"Your still here?" he asked.

"Yep. Apparently your aunt and uncle are trying to get on my good side so that I will eventually fall in love with Dudley and have a fat kid," I grumbled. "That is _not_ going to happen,"

"Good, I don't look forward to a future where you marry my cousin," Harry chuckled making me roll my eyes.

"Harry, what really happened?" I asked him once he was done chuckling. "I doubt the version your family told is the one I'm looking for, since I know for a fact you are not a deranged boy or that Dudley is brave enough to come back for us," I shuddered, imagining Dudley carrying me back to his home.

"They _did_ try to set you up with Dudley, that's for sure," he smirked, almost laughing at me, so I smacked him gently on the arm until he stopped. "Well, after you slugged Dudley-" I smiled triumphantly, "we ran for shelter,"

"I remember all that," I nodded, willing him to get to what I couldn't remember.

"Anyway, when the Dementor threw you backward, I tried to go after it, but another one appeared and grabbed me," Harry explained. "So once I got away from it, I used my Patronus to get rid of them. After that I carried you back to the Dursley's,"

I winced and looked over at him sheepishly. "Sorry,"

"For what?"

"That you had to carry me," I explained.

"It's all right, you're a lot littler than you look," Harry said quickly, and I had to stop a moment to debate on being insulted or not.

I decided not to be. "Thank you for saving me," I told him.

"No problem," Harry said, his face dropping as he looked down at the floor sadly, looking as if he had just lost everything.

"They can't expel you, Harry," I insisted thinking back on what had happened and what the letter had said.

"You heard the letter! I'm expelled from Hogwarts!" Harry exclaimed jumping up to lean against the wall across the room.

"But it's not fair! It's not even logical," I growled. "First of all, there were no muggles present. And second, you were using your Patronus to defend yourself," I exclaimed, trying to explain it to him. "We'll go to Dumbledore and have him set up a hearing, unless there is already one. You'll explain yourself. I'll be your witness that there were Dementors,"

"You'll help me?" he asked, looking up at me with new hope.

"Harry, what have I been doing for the past four years?" I asked with a chuckle. "Of course I'll help you silly,"

Harry smiled then, not a full out smile, but enough of one for me to be satisfied. We sat for a minute in silence before Harry looked up at me, a quizzical look on his face.

"Rebecca?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are you here? You started to tell me before the attack, but…"

I looked away from him, out the window, feeling that happiness in me get squashed by a giant foot. "Harry…" How was I supposed to tell him? I had come all the way out here, and now I lose my guts? "My mum… she's gone,"

"What do you mean, gone?" Harry asked.

"… She's dead,"

"What? How?" he asked.

"My father brought Death Eaters to our house… and they killed her right in front of me. I barely escaped. I didn't know where else to go," I told him, looking down at my hands.

"I'm sorry,"

"Me too," I sighed.

We were awkwardly silent for quite some time.

"I missed you, Harry,"

"I missed you, too," he seemed happy that I had spoken first.

"Why didn't you write, then?" I asked.

"Why didn't _I_ write? Why didn't _you_ write? I didn't get any news from anyone all summer!" Harry exclaimed.

"I didn't get anything from anyone either!" I yelled back. "Anything I did get from was really vague," We both watched each other before we both sighed and relaxed. "I guess we're both in the same boat, then?"

"I guess so," Harry nodded.

Suddenly, I heard a pop and then china crashing to the floor, followed by a female voice swearing and some male grumbling. Harry and I both looked at each other before jumping up, Harry pushing me behind him as he held up his wand in front of him, waiting for the intruder.

"Where's my bag?" I hissed at him.

"In the cupboard beneath the stairs. I figured that if I brought it in, my aunt would go snooping and figure out you were a witch," Harry told me.

I cursed internally. No wand. Now I had to be saved by Harry yet again.

Slowly, and suspensefully, we waited as we heard footsteps coming up the stairs and to the front of Harry's door before the door burst open in an explosion of light. I quickly ducked behind Harry to block the light from my eyes before peaking over his shoulder to see a group of witches and wizards. To the front, a young female with bright purple hair who was muttering about how clean muggles were before stepping into the room, smiling at Harry and I.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked.

"No, no, no, no-"

"Good," she smiled, interrupting Harry and I.

"Professor Moody?" Harry asked, spotting the man behind the purple haired woman. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you of course," Mad-Eye grumbled, before making his way back down stairs. "Make sure he's ready, Tonks," he yelled back up behind him.

"Alright then," Tonks smiled, using her wand to pull out Harry's trunk from under his bed. "Let's get packing," she smiled.

Harry and I gave each other before Harry went to work on packing. I quickly moved out of the way to stand beside Tonks, glancing in the mirror next to me. I looked horrible, so I quickly fixed myself, adding the color back into my skin, getting rid of the bags under my eyes, and fixing my hair so that it sat on my shoulders perfectly in smooth dark golden waves with splashes of brown.

"You're a Metamorphmagus!"

I jumped and turned to Tonks who was staring at me happily. I slowly nodded only to have her attack me in a huge hug.

"I'm one too!" she exclaimed, jumping back to show me her quickly changing hair that was purple on moment, then bubble-gum pink, the dark green.

"You're Nymphadora?" I asked.

She froze, her hair slowly turning bright red as she glared down at me, as if I had just slapped her. "I hate the name Nymphadora," she said slowly. "I go by Tonks," she finished as her hair changed back to purple.

I quickly raised my hands up in surrender, taking a step back and into the dresser behind me. "I'm sorry. I've only ever heard of you as Nymphadora. Aren't you related to the Black family?" I asked.

Tonks nodded. "Yes, but my mother was disowned when she married a muggle born, my father Ted," she explained.

"Oh," So there was more than one good guy from the Black family tree.

"Are you done yet?" Tonks asked, looking more like an annoyed teenager than a full grown witch.

Harry looked up, looking slightly annoyed and surprised. "No,"

Tonks sighed, and with a flick of her wand, clothes, books, papers, and other odds and ends suddenly flew up into the air and then crammed themselves into Harry's trunk. Harry stared for a moment before looking up at Tonks who was beaming as she walked over to his trunk and looked in.

"Never could get the stuff to organize itself. It always ends up in a jumbled mess. My mother was always better at household spells," Tonks told us before shrugging and slamming the lid of the trunk shut before looking over at Harry. "Is that everything?"

Harry stared at her before nodding slowly.

"Right she smiled looking back down at the trunk before her eyebrows furrowed as she stared down at the trunk. "I don't know how we're going to take it which us,"

"I do!" I smiled. "Just bring it downstairs," I told her.

She nodded, and with another flick of her wand, the trunk rose a foot off the ground and hovered in the air, before following her out the door, leaving Harry and I to follow. Once door stairs, I grabbed my bag out of the cupboard, where Harry had told me it was, and shoved his trunk into my bag.

"We ready?" Mad-Eye asked as he came around the corner from the kitchen, eyeing Tonks, who quickly nodded. "Good, let's go,"

He, along with the rest of the group of witches and wizards all moved to leave, but Harry chased after Moody. "But where are we going, the letter said I've been expelled from Hogwarts,"

"Well you haven't been, not yet," he grumbled. "Kinglsey, you take point,"

"But the letter said-"

But a dark skinned man in fancy robes interrupted him. "Dumbledore has persuaded the Minister to expend your expulsion, pending a formal hearing,"

"A hearing?" Harry asked.

"Told you," I smiled as I gently elbowed him in the side.

"Don't worry, Harry. We'll explain everything when we get back to headquarters," Tonks told him, earning a glare from Mad-Eye.

"Not here, Nymphadora," Mad-Eye growled.

Tonks froze as her hair turned bright red and she turned on him glaring, making me want to laugh. "_Don't _call me Nymphadora," she growled frustratedly, before Mad-Eye slammed his wand in the ground, making everyone's brooms appear, even mine. Tonks quickly shook herself, catching her broom before it could smack her in the face before mounting it.

"Stay in formation everyone. Don't break ranks if one of us is killed," Mad-Eye grumbled before he took off.

"Great inspirational speech," I murmured, getting a chuckle from both Tonks and Harry before we all took off after him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I love Tonks and I like(d) that I was able to display her here and later on before Rebecca has to go to Hogwarts.<strong>


	4. Grimmauld Place

About two hours of flying later, we all landed in the center of a road, looking up at apartment buildings. Mad-Eye looked around carefully before he slammed his staff into the ground three times. After a moment of rumbling, another bit of building seemed to slide out from the building magically. When it was finally set, I stared at it in awe before Moody turned to Harry and I.

"In you two go," he grumbled.

Harry looked over at me, willing me to come with him, and I nodded, walking up to the building, nearly leaving Harry behind. I turned the knob to the door cautiously, hoping no one expected me to knock or anything. Harry quickly walked in after me, and the both of us moved down the long hall slowly, before Moody and the rest of the wizards shoved past us, knocking the two of us into the wall. Tonks cam last, winking at Harry before smiling brightly at me… and then clumsily tripping over an umbrella stand, only catching herself before slamming face first into the floor, making me giggle softly.

All of them walked through a door at the end of the hall, and it stayed open once Tonks went through, allowing me to see the meeting going on inside, and the people directly in front of the door.

There he was. There they both were. My true father, and the man that had known all along and hadn't told me. Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. They both looked up at Harry and I, Sirius looking at Harry and Lupin looking at me.

And then Mrs. Weasley came bustling through, shutting the door behind her and blocking our way as she smiled at us, running up to us to give us a hug.

"Harry! Rebecca!" she exclaimed crushing both of us in a single hug. "Thank heavens the both of you are alright!" We both hugged her happily and a bit awkwardly before she let both of us go. She turned to Harry and smiled brightly as she put her hands on either side of his face. "A bit peaky. But you'll have to wait until after the meetings finished,"

Harry tried to say something, but she quickly interrupted her.

"No. No time to explain. Straight upstairs, first door on your left," she said, pointing up the stairs next to us before looking over at me sadly. "Oh and Rebecca, I heard about your mum. I'm so glad your alive!" she exclaimed, hugging me to her again.

"You know?" I asked in surprise.

"Everyone's known. Aurors were on the scene within the hour, found your mum dead and your father was saying he had just got back to find her like that. We all don't believe that rubbish though," Mrs. Weasley sighed, as she pulled back and put her hands on my shoulders. "Your mother was a good woman, Rebecca," I nodded slowly as she nodded back before she ushered Harry and I upstairs to the correct room.

As we entered, it was completely silent before a has of bushy brown hair attacked Harry, making my jump before I realized who it was.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed before she got off of him and moved to envelope me in an even bigger hug. "Are you both alright?" Hermione asked as she stepped away from us.

We nodded.

"We heard them talking about the Dementor attack. You must tell us everything," she said, looking to Harry.

"Let the man breath, Hermione," Ron chuckled, but Hermione ignored him.

"And the hearing at the Ministry. It's just outrageous! I've looked it up, you simply can't expel you. It's completely unfair," Hermione exclaimed as Harry walked fully into the room, allowing me in.

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around at the moment," I growled, looking over at Harry instead of at them.

"We heard about your mother, too, Rebecca," Hermione said sadly, taking my hand in hers. "We're sorry," I nodded and looked to Ron and Harry who both gave me the same sad look.

And then Harry got down to business. "So what is this place?"

"It's headquarters,"

"The Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret society set up by Dumbledore to fight You-Know-Who. It wasn't running after the war, but then he started gathering the members as fast as he could after You-Know-Who had returned," Hermione explained quickly.

"You couldn't have put any of this in a letter?" I asked, moving to sit on the bed between Them and Us.

"Rebecca and I went all summer without a scrap of news," Harry growled.

Ron and Hermione looked up comfortable, before Ron spoke. "Sorry mate. We wanted to tell you. Really we did… only-"

"Only what?" Harry interrupted.

"Dumbledore made us swear not to tell you… either of you," Hermione replied, looking worried.

I could understand on my end why they didn't tell me, since my dad was a Death Eater and they didn't want information falling into his hands. But Harry on the other hand? Well… Harry looked furious.

"Dumbledore made you swear? Why would he do that? Why would he want to keep me in the dark, after all I was the one who saw him-"

There was a loud crack that sounded a little like bubbles and Harry was cut off as Fred and George appeared behind him. "

Harry!" the Weasley twins exclaimed as the both smiled down at Harry.

"We thought we heard your angry tones," one of the twins smiled as they sat back on the bed behind Harry. "Don't bottle it up mate. Let it out," "Anyway, if your all done shouting-" "You wanna hear something a little more interesting?"

The four of us followed Fred and George outside to the landing, and Fred took something out of his pocket. It had two ears on it, attached together by a long piece of fleshy looking string. He lowered one of the ears down, so it was dangling just outside the door to where the meeting was.

"Hi Ginny," Harry whispered causing me to look up at her.

The seven us then resumed listening to the Extendable Ears, as Fred and George called it.

"Snape's in the Order?" Harry suddenly asked as we all heard his monotone voice insult Sirius.

"Yeah, the git…" Ron scoffed, making me smile.

Down below in the hallway, Hermione's cat Crookshanks suddenly appeared, sitting and watching the ear, making stared for a moment. Fred tried pulling it up as we all heard a 'meow' through the ear, but Crookshanks was pulling at it and eventually yanked it off of the fleshy string, ending our eavesdropping.

"Hermione, I hate your cat," the twins, Ron and I all said in unison making us all look at each other, and Hermione glare at us.

"Kids! Time for dinner! Come on down!" we all heard Mrs. Weasley yell as Fred finally reeled the remains of the Extendable Ear up over the banister and stuck it into his pocket.

We all ran down stair as Fred and George both Apparated down to her, scaring her and causing her to yell at them about whipping their wands out for everything before she turned back to Harry with a smile. "You hungry, Harry?" she asked, he whole demeanor changing, making me giggle.

"You sure you're all right, Harry? Gave us quite a turn," Mr. Weasley asked as he walked up behind his wife, putting an arm around her shoulder as others appeared behind him.

"Harry Potter," The married couple parted to reveal Sirius behind them, his arms wide to receive his godson.

He looked good. He was clean and bathed, his hair washed and brushed, his clothes new compared to the prison garb I had seen him in last.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed, running up to him and giving him a big hug.

I smiled at the two of them before my eye spied Lupin standing behind them, smiling down at them before his eyes spied me. His eyes immediately turned sad as he looked a me, and he stood in the doorway until it was only him, Hermione and I standing there, the others having gone down to dinner.

"You alright, Rebecca? You coming?" Hermione asked, pulling lightly on my sleeve.

I looked over at her and nodded. "I'm fine. I just need to talk to Professor Lupin for a minute. You go ahead," I smiled. She looked between the two of us before she nodded and followed the others down the stairs and into the kitchen downstairs.

"Would you like to speak in private?" he asked, gesturing behind him into the room that their meeting had been in. I nodded and moved past him and quickly sat down in the nearest chair as he closed the door behind me before leaning back against it, his hands in his pockets.

Like when I had been speaking to Harry, I didn't know where to begin, so I started in the same place. "My mother… she's gone,"

"I know,"

"And she told me some thing's before she died," I murmured.

To that I received silence, which made me look up at him. He was still in the same spot, but he was looking at the ground, his eyebrows furrowed.

"You know what I'm talking about don't you?"

He looked up slowly and nodded. "Yes, I think I do,"

"Is he really my father?" I asked.

Lupin sighed and pushed himself off the wall, his hands still in his pocket as he walked along the length of the table until he reached the head of the table, where he put his hand on the back pf the chair there, leaning against it.

"Yes, Sirius Black is your father, Rebecca," Lupin sighed.

I nodded slowly, looking away from him to stare off into the wall. "How am I going to tell him? _Do_ I tell him?" I asked. "I mean, he already has Harry Potter as his godson… finding out he has a daughter after that would be like finding out you won a Knut after you already won ten galleons," I sighed.

"Rebecca, it doesn't matter. It's not some sort of contest. You are his _daughter_. It won't matter to him if you're 'just Rebecca', it's the fact that you're his and Ambrosia's that will matter the most," Lupin explained, straightening. "And yes, you should tell him,"

I groaned and stood. "Will you stay with me?" I asked.

Lupin nodded, a small smile on his scarred face as he walked over to the door, opening it for me. I nodded back and the two of us made our way down to the kitchen where everyone was bustling around, getting their food on their plates and getting situated in there spots.

"Padfoot!" Lupin called across the room.

It was then that I actually spotted him. Sirius was sitting at the head of the table, at the far end of the room, Harry sitting on one side, Mr. Weasley on the other. Sirius looked up at Lupin and I and smiled brightly. "Why don't you come and sit down, Moony? It looks like it's been awhile since you last ate," Sirius chuckled as he took a sip of whatever he had in his glass.

"Paddy, Rebecca and I need to speak with you," Lupin tried again.

"Not now, Moony. I'm finally getting some time with my godson," Sirius smiled happily, clapping Harry on the shoulder.

"Padfoot, this is important," Lupin tried yet again.

"What could be more important right now than me spending time with my godson?" Sirius asked jokingly as he smiled at Harry who smiled back.

"Your daughter?" I growled. The people closest to me froze, and either chose to stare at me with wide eyes, or at Sirius, which made me blush.

"Sirius. _Now_!" Lupin growled, and when I say growled, I mean he actually growled.

Sirius froze, probably from the mixture of the use of his actual name and his best friend, who was typically so sweet and kind, was growling at him.

Sirius quickly stood, whispering something to Harry for a moment before he pushed his way through everyone, who had stopped and was almost completely silent as they watched the three of us leave the room.

I followed Sirius and Lupin up to the meeting room again, and quietly closed the door behind us as the two of them walked to the end of the room where they started muttering to each other angrily.

"What's this all about, Moony?"

"It's Ambrosia-"

"I'm bloody tired of everyone constantly bringing her up," Sirius interrupted angrily. "It's hard enough on me to know that she's dead, but now everyone constantly keeps bringing her up,"

"Padfoot, this is more than just her. This about something that happened fifteen years ago," Lupin grumbled to him.

"What? What could have happened that long ago that could be so important know?" Sirius snapped angrily.

"Me," I interrupted, getting both of them to look up and at me. "I happened fifteen years ago,"

"… She's your daughter, Padfoot," Lupin explained slowly.

"Wait… what?" Sirius asked, looking from me back to Lupin.

"You and my mom… you know… before she and Gregory got married. And nine months later I was born," I explained.

He looked back at me searchingly, but didn't seem to find what he wanted so he shook his head. "You don't even look like Ambrosia, you look like him," he said, growling when he said 'him'.

"I'm a Metamorphmagus, like Tonks. Gregory, when I was little, told me too change my appearance so that I could hide my true identity… but really he just didn't want me to look like you," I explained.

Slowly, and reluctantly, I morphed, let the sensation come over me as my hair darkened and curled around me and I shortened. I could feel my face soften and my eyes burn for a second as the turned into my mothers, which seemed to be the first thing Sirius noticed, like when people noticed Harry's eyes, which, like mine, were his mother's.

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius murmured, staring at me in awe for a moment before he stepped toward me hesitantly.

Now that I thought about it, I did look a lot like him, especially with the dark curly/frizzy hair. Really, it was only my eyes that represented Mum at all.

I waited as I watched his reaction to me, until he hugged me, nearly crushing me against him. I stood frozen in complete and utter surprise, until I thawed and hugged him back, glad that he excepted me.

A moment later however, he pulled away from me, turning to Lupin and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Well, that was sufficiently awkward," Sirius murmured.

"Yep. Yep it was," I nodded, with a bit of a smile.

"So, Moony, Rebecca… let's go eat?" Sirius asked.

"Are you going to tell them?" Lupin asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, bringing up the important and annoying subject.

Sirius and I looked at each other at the same time, asking each other silently with a single raised eyebrow before we both looked back to Lupin.

"Sure. Why not?" I replied before Sirius and I moved out the door.

We all made our way down the stairs together, and back to kitchen where everyone was eating and talking happily. When we entered however, with Sirius' arm around my shoulders, everyone looked up, quieting down considerably.

"So… has everyone met my daughter Rebecca?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I loved the casual, "Has everyone met my daughter?" moment. One of my friends gave me the idea when I just couldn't figure out what to do to end the scene. I will always been in debt to her.<strong>

**Too cheesy? To nonchalant? To sirius? (Get it?) Review!**


	5. Charming Woman

It took the length of dinner to explain everything to everyone, and still most people were reeling at the news considering my mum hadn't told anyone and my real dad's track record. Popular. Independent. Player. Man whore. Wait, did I just say that?

But soon enough, after dinner was over, everything quieted down and we all got to business. "This is very, very peculiar," Mr. Weasley began. "It seems your hearing in the Ministry is to be before the entire Wizengamot,"

"I don't understand. What has the Ministry of Magic got against me?" Harry asked, looking around at all of us, but no one said anything.

"Show him," Mad-Eye grumbled from where he stood behind me. "He'll find out soon enough,"

Slowly, a newspaper was past down the table until it reached Harry. I looked over his shoulder to find that I was a little bit older addition that said; 'The Boy Who Lies' which was actually a lot more clever than 'Harry Plotter'.

"He's been attacking Dumbledore as well," I told him sadly.

"Fudge is using all his power, including his influence at the Daily Prophet to smear anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned," Sirius added.

"Why?" Harry asked angrily.

"The minister thinks Dumbledore's after his job-" Lupin replied.

"But that's insane. No one in their right mind could believe that Dumbledore's-"

"That's exactly the point," Lupin interrupted. "Fudge isn't in his right mind. It's been twisted and warped by fear. Now, fear makes people do terrible things, Harry. The last time Voldemort gained power he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear. Now he's returned and I'm afraid the minister will do almost anything to avoid facing that terrifying truth,"

"We think Voldemort wants to build up his army again," Sirius continued, looking from Lupin, to Mrs. Weasley at the end of the table, who was watching him angrily, then to Harry and I. "Fourteen years ago, he had huge numbers at his command, and not just witches and wizards, but all manners of dark creatures. He's been recruiting heavily, and we've been attempting to do the same. But gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in-"

Sirius was warned by Moody, who cleared his throat, but Sirius continued anyway, once he caught me looking at him, willing him to continue.

"We believe Voldemort may be after something-"

"Sirius," Professor Moody warned again. I looked up at him, then back to Sirius, eager to hear what he was going to say.

"Something he didn't have last time," he said carefully, shifting his gaze to Harry.

"You mean, like a weapon?" Harry asked.

Sirius was about to say something but Mrs. Weasley quickly ran up and interrupted him. "No. Stop it! He's just a boy. You say much more and you might as well induct him into the Order straight away!"

"Good. I want to join," Harry interrupted, looking to Sirius. "If Voldemort's raising an army, then I want to fight," he insisted, getting a happy look from Sirius.

I looked between Mrs. Weasley's angry look and the rest of the Order's reluctant faces before I spoke up. "If you don't tell Harry what he needs to know now, he'll just end up stumbling into it blindly and come out of it completely confused. The past four years has been an example of people not telling him what he needed to know right away," I explained looking from Mrs. Weasley to Sirius to Moody. "First year it was the Philosopher's Stone where the four of us almost died, second year it was the Chamber of Secrets where Harry and I almost died, third year was Sirius and Peter where everyone almost died, and last year it's all kind of obvious," I grumbled. "Just tell us!" I exclaimed.

"That's enough for tonight," Mrs. Weasley quickly said, ignoring me as she shooed everyone off to bed and made sure that Harry, Sirius and I didn't come within ten feet of each other. "You need to rest up for tomorrow. Off to bed- both of you!"

"Both of us?" I asked myself once we were out of the dining room and starting down the hall.

"That's right-" the twins popped up on either side of me. "Dumbledore wants you-" "-to be a witness,"

"Didn't forget about your promise, did you?" Harry called down to me from a higher landing, laughing a little.

"No," I called up to him. "I just wasn't expecting it to be tomorrow,"

**(AN: *Am Going To Fix*)**


	6. The Hearing

The next morning I was woken up extremely early, to early for witches and muggles alike to be waking up. Mrs. Weasley told me to put on my best clothes for the hearing, to give good impression before bustling out of the room, muttering something about too young and breakfast.

I grabbed my bag and pulled out my trunk which was dedicated completely to clothes and searched through it until I found a nice simple teal-blue dress that reminded me of law officers before putting on a small black sweater. And then of course, I added my fancy black flats.

I moved to the mirror and glared at myself as I morphed myself into the stupid blonde haired and golden eyed girl everyone knew. My face became angular again and I gained height as I watched myself.

I hated this.

So, to make up for the fact I looked like my stepfather, I changed my face to my true one, since last year I had made it a mesh of my grandmother's and mine. I could pull it off. I also changed the color of my hair, like Tonks seemed to always do, but since I was going to Harry's hearing, I didn't do anything fancy. I colored my hair, instead of it's typical blonde, so that it was light brown with darker brown streaks blended in. I then quickly put the front half of my hair up and into a messy bun, using some bobby pins in Hermione's kit to hold the mess of hair up.

I smiled to myself and at my new hair when I was done before walking to my door and opening it to walk downstairs. I was surprised to see Harry standing there in a pressed suit staring back at me.

"Good morning," I smiled brightly, as he blinked at me for a moment.

"Uh… Hi, Rebecca," Harry smiled.

"Sorry about the change," I told him, gesturing to myself. "I figured no one would recognize me without at least some of my old appearance. But I changed my hair and face a little," I smiled, tugging a long wavy lock of brown hair.

"That's not-"

"We need to get there early, I still have to work," Mr. Weasley called from downstairs.

"On it!" I yelled down to him, linking my arm with Harry and pulling him down the stairs with me.

The two of us emerged into the kitchen to find only Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Kingsley, a very tired looking Sirius and one or two other wizards sitting about the room drinking breakfast and eating various drinks.

Yes, I was tired.

Mrs. Weasley immediately bustled over to us, insisting we have breakfast, sitting us done across from Sirius and setting plates of food down in front of us. Apparently Mrs. Weasley wasn't too worried about Sirius telling us anything about last night this morning, considering he only looked half awake.

Speaking of which, I was about to sit down when Sirius looked up at me, over the rim of his mug, when his eyes widened.

"Rebecca!" he exclaimed, making both Harry and I jump as he put down his cup and stared at me. "That dress is much too short, and much too low cut. Go upstairs and put on something else!"

I stared at him in shock for a long moment before his eyes gleamed with mischief and he started chuckling to himself, picking his mug back up.

"Just joshing. I'm trying out being a dad. How am I doing Arthur?" Sirius asked, smiling over at Mr. Weasley, who was eyeing him like he was crazy.

"None too bad, Sirius, though I'd wait until she was wearing something that gave you a legitimate reason to yell at her,"

Sirius thought about that for a moment before nodding. "Right,"

Harry and I looked at each other, wondering what in the world had just transpired, but considering it was too early, we both just sat down and started eating or breakfast. Not much later however, Mr. Weasley was ushering us out the door as Sirius wished us luck. We traveled by cab, subway (which Mr. Weasley had a hard time comprehending) and then walked along the streets until we reached the visitors entrance which allowed all three of us in at once. Once inside, I had a hard time staying with Harry and Mr. Weasley, considering the huge crowds and the whole busyness of it all. But eventually, we all made it, together, to the lifts, where we were told by Kingsley that Harry's hearing had been moved up.

"When is it?"

"In five minutes," Mr. Weasley replied as the lift began to move backwards and then down.

Eventually we arrived at our destination, the Department of Mysteries, which, to me, was a strange place to have a hearing. We got off and Harry and I followed Mr. Weasley as he led the way through the black tiled halls until we arrived at a door where he stopped us.

"Remember, during the hearing, speak only when you're spoken to. Keep calm. You've done nothing wrong," Mr. Weasley told Harry quickly. "As the Muggles say, truth will out. Yes?" Harry nodded quickly.

"I'm not allowed in, I'm afraid," Mr. Weasley suddenly said, making Harry and I look at him in shock and a bit of fear. "And I've got to run," he sighed before looking between the two of us. "Go in once they call you, and good luck,"

And then he was gone.

I looked over at Harry as I felt my heart rate speed up in anticipation for the hearing, only to see he hadn't tidied his hair. I rolled my eyes before I reached up and ran my fingers through it, trying to make it look combed. When I was done, I sat back and frowned.

"Don't tell me it's not neat enough," he protested, looking slightly amused by my anxiety.

"No, it's good. I think it looks best messy anyway-" I stopped myself there, turning to face the door. Right then, thank the gods, a man came out, looking more like a house elf than a wizard, and told us to come it.

We followed him into the courtroom, and moved to where he instructed, Harry to the chair centered on the main floor, while I was put on a low-level bench behind him where there was no one.

The Wizengamot trying Harry was made up of about fifty wizards and witches, led by Cornelius Fudge, who was seated next a toad-like woman whose pink collar peeked out from under her black robe. I noticed Ron's older brother, Percy, was present to transcribe the proceedings.

"Disciplinary hearing of the 12th of August into offenses committed by Harry James Potter resident at Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic-"

"Witness for the defense!" I jumped as Dumbledore's voice boom behind me, and looked back to see him breezing into the room, coming to Harry's rescue. "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore,"

"You got our message that the time and place of the hearing had been changed, did you?" the minister asked, looking a bit scared.

"I must have missed it," Dumbledore sighed. "But by happy mistake, I arrived at the Ministry three hours early,"

I wanted to laugh so bad.

"Charges?"

I could hear the minister grumble to himself before he put his glasses back on and continued. "The charges against the accused are as follows; 'That he did knowingly and full awareness of the illegality of his actions produces a Patronus Charm,' Do you deny producing said Patronus?"

"No, but-" Harry began, but the minister interrupted.

"And you were aware that you were forbidden to use magic outside school while under the age of 17?"

"Yes, I was, but-"

"Witches and wizards of the Wizengamot-"

"I was only doing it because of the Dementors!" Harry finally exclaimed, getting everyone's attention, and allowing that breath I had been holding to be released.

"Dementors? In Little Whinging?" a woman in a black robe asked.

"I'm sure you have a very well rehearsed story prepared, however, since you have no witnesses of the event-" the minister spat out, threatened by the truth.

"Actually, we do. Harry was not alone during the attack, as you recall. His act was in defense of another, as well," Dumbledore turned to look at me, cuing my entrance. I quickly made my way up to the chair, switching places with Harry, giving him a desperate look as I passed him.

"Rebecca Adhara Sherwood," the minister looked up from a piece of paper that, I assumed, had information about me on it. "Can you please describe the attack?"

I nodded slowly. "Clouds appeared, and the atmosphere turned cold and everything began to freeze. At first I didn't know what it was, but when I felt all happiness leave me, I figured it out. Harry knows well that I cannot produce a patronus, so he tried to protect me. However, one grabbed me and threw me while another attacked Harry… I'm sorry, that's all I remember,"

I looked up at the minister, who seemed to be shaking. Was he angry or fearful? Which ever, I was scared out of my mind.

"Miss Sherwood proves to be an unreliable witness, since she was not conscious for the crime-" the minister began.

"Minister, Miss Sherwood has just confirmed the presence and the attack upon both Mr. Potter and herself by the Dementors…" Dumbledore explained before moving toward the bench where he continued to talk too softly for me to hear. "Those in favor of conviction?" the woman with the ugly pink bow asked, interrupting whatever Dumbledore had been saying. My heart raced as hands slowly rose into the air, beginning with that same pink bow woman.

"Those in favor of clearing the defendant of _all_ charges?" a different woman asked, and most all of the hands flew into the air.

"Cleared of all charges," the minister grumbled as he banged his gavel in defeat.

'WE WON!' my mind yelled as my face broke into a bright smile.

"Miss Sherwood, the trial is over," Dumbledore murmured to me, patting my hand which was gripping the hem of my dress too tightly.

"Thanks," I smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I LOVE THE SIRIUS DAD MOMENT!<strong>

**Review please!**


	7. Parenthood

Over the next few weeks, Harry and I spent a lot of time either on our own, with Sirius, or with each other. It wasn't that we were suddenly finding each other extremely interesting or anything, it was just how we ended up.

I mean, Harry wasn't really hanging around people because he was mad that they had left him so utterly out of the loop. He also seemed a little peeved when it came to the Ministry of Magic as a whole, considering they where all acting like a bunch of scared children and conspiracy writers all wrapped up into one. Not to mention that not everybody in the house seemed to believe Harry that Voldemort was back as much as Dumbledore and I seemed to, I mean, even Ron and Hermione gave each other looks whenever Harry brought the subject up. Harry also spent a lot of time with Sirius since he was his godfather and all, along with the two of them having a lot in common. And the only reason he hung out with me was because I forced him to and I could stand his angsty behavior that made people take a cautious step away from him in fear.

I, on the other hand, just seemed to gravitate toward adults most of the time, mostly because everyone else seemed so much less serious and constantly wanted to talk about the past. About my mum, about my stepfather, about my real dad. All things I wanted to put behind me at the moment until I could get used to it. I also tended to spend a lot of time with Sirius so as to get to know him, and when he felt up to it (since we both were feeling a bit raw in the heart at the moment) would talk about mum and his adventures with Harry's dad. This also lead me to spend a lot of time with Harry since he spent a lot of time with Sirius also, and he also seemed to be the only one to understand my pain at the moment.

However, this didn't stop us from randomly being dragged into the twins pranks when the caused them, or being dragged into being blamed for them. Like once when Fred and George had fed Ron a plate of cookies that also had some sort of potion in it that changed him into a pig. Once Hermione had figured out that the milk of the counter had the antidote, Ron had immediately blamed me, considering I was the potion-y one of the group. This all lead me to use the person nearest me as a human shield. Harry.

Before long we all got our letter from Hogwarts, and there were special surprises inside each one… of Ron's and Hermione's anyway. They had both been made Gryffindor prefects. This of course didn't put Harry in the best room. Yes, he was happy for them both, but I could tell that he had expected to be, and wanted to be the Gryffindor male prefect.

Tonks apparently had noticed Harry's sour mood over being prefect and smiled, walking over to the two of us. "I was never a prefect myself. My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary qualities," she told us.

"Like what?" I asked, curious.

"Like the ability to behave myself," she answered causally, causing Harry and I to burst out laughing.

And then, it was time for school, and my blood felt like it was on fire with excitement as I walked through the train station, toward platform nine and three quarters. Nearly everyone was there, for Harry's safety, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who looked after their kids, Tonks, Lupin, and Mad-Eye who looked after Harry, Hermione and I.

However, as we headed down one of the ramps, a familiar scruffy black dog trotted up beside Harry and I, to Mad-Eye's disappointment.

"Padfoot! Are you barking mad? You'll blow the entire operation!" Moody growled, trying desperately to keep his voice down. But really, what kind of undercover operation was he hoping to undergo when Mad-Eye looked so… Mad-Eye-y?

Nevertheless, Sirius ran past us and down into one of the waiting rooms that was deserted at the moment. Harry looked at me before a smile twitched on the corners of his mouth, clearly excited to see Sirius one last time before we left for Hogwarts.

Once our group reached the waiting rooms Sirius was in, Harry ran to the door immediately, only to stop when he looked back as if he were looking for something. He seemed to have found it when his eyes stopped on me, which caused his smiled to return.

"Come on, Rebecca. He probably wants to see you, too," Harry called, gesturing to me to follow him, and I did as I was told enthusiastically, glad to be invited in. I walked in behind Harry, being careful to shut the door right behind me before I turned to look at Sirius, who stood in the corner of the room smiling at the both of us. "Sirius, what are you doing here? If somebody sees you-"

"Well, I had to see the both of you off, didn't I?" Sirius interrupted, not fooled, he knew better than anyone that Harry was happy that he was there. "What's life without a little risk?"

"Well, we'd rather not see you shut back in Azkaban," I murmured, only making Sirius to roll his eyes at me.

"Oh don't worry about me," Sirius smiled, patting me on the knee before turning back to Harry. "Anyway, I wanted you to have this," Sirius pulled out what looked like a sheet of parchment from his jacket pocket and handed it over to Harry, who opened it.

It was then I realized that is was a picture. A picture of a group of people, some I recognized, others I didn't.

"The original Order of the Phoenix," Sirius explained before pointing to a woman on the picture. "Marlene KcKinnon. She was killed two weeks after this was taken. Voldemort wiped out her entire family," Then he pointed to a couple near the center of the photo. "Frank and Alice Longbottom,"

"Neville's parents," I whispered as I looked down at the happy couple.

"They suffered a fate worse that death, if you ask me," Sirius sighed as he wrapped an arm around me shoulder. "It's been 14 years. And still a day doesn't go by I don't miss your dad, Harry," Sirius sighed before turning back to me. "Or wish I had more time with your mum," he said with a sad smile.

"Do you really think there's going to be a war, Sirius?" Harry asked after a long moment.

Sirius thought about it for a moment before he nodded. "It feels like it did before,"

Harry slowly nodded, looking over at me before he turned back to the photo, folding it up and handing it to Sirius.

"You keep it," Sirius said, pushing it back towards Harry. "Anyway, I suppose you're the young ones now," he smiled.

"Which means your old," I murmured, getting a smack on the back of the head for it. "Hey!" I chuckled rubbing the back of my head as I smiled up at Sirius who wore a mock look of anger.

"Don't make me whip my cane out, young lady," he 'growled'.

"See. I'm young," I pointed out, letting out a short fit of giggles.

Sirius just rolled his eyes and turned to Harry. "Is she always like this?"

Harry smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I think it's a Metamorphmagus thing. They both act like crazy hatters,"

"Hey!" I growled, glaring at Harry. "Don't make me run around Hogwarts as you screaming; 'I am in love with Draco Malfoy!' You know I would,"

Harry glared at me, and made to lunge, but Sirius put both of his arms up, holding Harry back and trying to quiet my fits of laughter.

"I guess you can't spell manslaughter without laughter," Sirius sighed. "Is this really what parenthood is like?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Yes. Yes it is.<strong>


	8. Welcome Nutter

The train ride to Hogwarts was quiet, mostly because it was just Harry and I, since Ron and Hermione had been the ones to be chosen to be the Gryffindor prefects. So it was just Harry and I sitting in the compartment, silently since we had spent all our talking and laughing tokens with Sirius, now we were just puttered out. It was only when Ron and Hermione returned halfway through the train ride did any noise enter the cabin, waking Harry from his nap, but he didn't speak the whole ride anyway.

It was only when we got off the train did anyone talk to us or Harry speak… not that this encounter was a good thing.

"I'm surprised the Ministry's still letting you walk around free, Potter," I didn't even need to turn around to know who had given that snide comment. It was Malfoy, my… cousin. Thank the gods he was a distant cousin. "You better enjoy it while you can. I expect there's a cell in Azkaban with your name on it,"

Harry lunged forward suddenly, but stopped short when Ron grabbed him and yanked him back. Malfoy jumped back with wide eyes before he composed himself and sneered down at Harry.

"What'd I tell you? Complete nutter-"

"Just stay away from me!" Harry shouted at a retreating Malfoy.

"It's only Malfoy. What'd you expect?" Ron murmured.

"And to think I'm related to that toerag," I murmured, glaring at the direction Malfoy had disappeared in.

Harry quickly broke away and kept walking, leaving me with a worried Ron and Hermione. I sighed and turned to them.

"You just need to give him a little time," I told them. "He feels like no one's on his side right now. He just has to figure out on his own that he's not,"

Ron and Hermione gave each other one last look before nodding to me and we all continued on toward the carriages together. We all spotted Harry standing the middle of the road, watching one of the carriages leaving. I looked toward it to find that it carried a smiling Cho Chang, Harry's long time crush… the girl that made my blood boil for no reason.

"Hi guys," I turned to see Neville, who was carrying something that vaguely resembled a squirming cactus. Next came a chorus of, 'Hi Neville"s and I just smiled at him brightly.

I could hear a carriage pulling up behind us, and I noticed Harry turned around at it, but only when I saw movement other than Harry, did I look up at the carriage.

Apparently, Dumbledore had decided to add something new this year, because instead of the carriage pulling itself, it was being led by what looked like an emaciated black horse, with large black wings on either side of it's body.

"What are they?" Harry breathed, looking up at them.

A small smile made its way across my face as I reached towards the nose of the creature. It snorted at the threat, and I shuffled to the side so it could see my body. Its black eyes measured me, weighing the risk of trusting me and calculating my character. Apparently, it decided I was worthy and allowed me to touch it. Its skin was so thin over its bones.

"What's what?" I heard Ron ask in return.

"That. Pulling the carriage," Harry elaborated.

"Nothing's pulling the carriage, Harry," Hermione told him, eyeing me as I petted the creature. "It's pulling itself, like always,"

"Oh for the Gods sake in the skies!" I exclaimed making everyone look at me with a confused look. "I thought we went over this last year and definitely the year before that. If Harry hears something, he's probably hearing it, which goes the same way for if he sees something," I sighed, stepping away from the creature.

"But there aren't any snakes here, Rebecca," Ron pointed out, making me roll my eyes.

"And besides, I can see it too," I told them.

Ron and Hermione gave each other looks behind Harry's back, probably thinking both Harry and I were insane. I growled to myself. Fine, let them think whatever they wanted everyone else was.

Harry sighed and walked over to me, eyeing the creature as he passed it before he and I walked to the end of the carriage. It was only then that I noticed that there was a girl already sitting in the carriage, reading some sort of magazine called the Quibbler, except that the thing was upside down. She slowly lowered it and smiled down at Harry and I, her blue eyes shining brightly.

"You're not going mad," Luna told Harry and I (mostly Harry), in her soft voice. "I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am,"

Harry didn't seem that assured by her comment, but I smiled and jumped into the carriage next to her. Everyone else piled on after me, Ron looking happy that I was separating him from Luna, which made me glare a little at him.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Luna Lovegood," I smiled, introducing her to the boys, since Hermione had already met her last year. "Her father is the editor of the Quibbler," I continued.

"Yes," Luna said smiling.

That left everyone sitting together awkwardly. I could definitely tell Hermione was uncomfortable, they all were. Did everyone have to be such untrusting, close minded toe rags?

"What an interesting necklace," Hermione finally spoke up.

Luna looked down at it and smiled, pinching it between her fingers so she could bring it out for everyone to see. "It's a charm actually," she told us before leaning toward Neville and Harry. "Keeps away the Nargles,"

I didn't have any idea what that was, and by the looks on everyone else's face, neither did they.

"Hungry," Luna sighed, sitting back. "I hope there's pudding,"

* * *

><p>Once the sorting was over, the feast began, and it was then that I noticed the rudely large gap between Harry and the rest of the table in his side. I however, sat close to him, to compensate, though after the food appeared, I had to scoot over a little so I wouldn't elbow him when I used my fork. Harry seemed to notice, cause when I looked over at him he gave me a sad little smile that made him look more sad than when he was frowning.<p>

So I leaned close to him, and murmured; "Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind,"

"Well it seems I'm lacking hose who matter and don't mind," he muttered, glancing over at Seamus, the person on the other side of the huge gap who was glaring at him.

"Just remember what Lupin said, Harry. People don't want to expect it that the worst thing to ever happen to the Wizarding World has come back to destroy it once again. It's just too scary," I whispered to him.

"Good evening, children," I turned around and looked up to see Dumbledore standing at his podium, waiting for everyone to settle down. "Now we have two changes in start. We're pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be teaching Care of Magical Creatures while Professor Hagrid is on temporary leave," The four of us estranged looks at that, all of us concerned about what that might mean. "We also wish to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Dolores Umbridge. I'm sure you will all join me in wishing Professor good luck,"

"She was at my hearing," Harry whispered to the three of us. "She works for Fudge,"

Now that I thought back, I did recognize her as that toad at Harry's hearing, the one that had that sickly sweet voice and the giant pick bow. Now, she just wore all pink.

Professor Dumbledore was about to continue speaking when Professor Umbridge started clearing her throat loudly, causing Dumbledore to look back at her confused. Taking the momentary pause, the new Professor stood and walked up and in front of the podium, trying to upstage Dumbledore as she began to speak.

"Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome," she began in a sickingly sweet voice, turning to give him an equally sickingly sweet smile before she turned back to the students. "And how lovely it is to see your bright, happy faces smiling up at me,"

"What happy faces?" I whispered.

There were none. The others sniggered.

"I'm sure we're all going to be such good friends," Professor Umbridge continued smiling happily at us.

"That's likely," Fred and George murmured in unison.

"Too right," I whispered, agreeing with them. "Doesn't she remind you of a frog? Or a toad?"

"Will you marry me?" Fred asked sarcastically, as if I had taken the words right out of his mouth.

"In your dreams, Weasley," I chuckled.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance,"

Lie. Potions books from the Ministry had all the instructions wrong on how to make potions. My step father had always told me that, and that was probably the only thing I thought he had said had been truthful. We had even done an experiment, his instructions versus the Ministry textbook. Let's just say that living breathing goop had not been what I was trying to accomplish while reading from the Ministry textbook.

"Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school," she nodded politely to Dumbledore at that. "progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and prune practices that ought to be… prohibited,"

The last part she whispered 'cutely' and then giggled happily, making Fred, George and I gag loudly as if we were about to puke up rainbows.

Applause only came when Dumbledore started clapping but it were as scattered as the attention had been through the speech. While Dumbledore resumed his speech before Umbridge had interrupted him, Hermione shifted in her seat.

"What a load of waffle," Ron growled.

"What's it mean?" Harry asked, looking thoroughly confused.

Hermione angrily shifted in her seat again and looked over at Harry before answering shortly; "… It mean the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts,"

"You know, I feel quite sorry for Snape," I murmured to my group as I sipped from my cup.

Harry, Ron, Fred and George spat out whatever was in their mouths whilst Hermione looked at both them and I with disgust.

"Why?" chanted the four boys.

"Well, he's sitting next to a pink puff ball with the insides like poisoned honey. That must really clash with his evil debonairness, not to mention means some competition," I chuckled.

However, the six of them continued to stare at me until I glared at them, forcing them to all look away.

* * *

><p>With dinner finished, Ron and Hermione disappeared off to sort out the new first years, starting with Ron shouting, "Hey, you lot! Midgets!" It was safe to say that Hermione disapproved.<p>

It took forever to get out of the Great Hall, and I was infinitely grateful that I didn't loose Harry in the throng, since I was clumsy like that. Harry and I walked up after the large suffocated group of Gryffindors and into the Gryffindor common room, finding that everyone had split of instantly, finding their spots. However, even with the room full of people, the noise seemed to die down as Harry walked into the room. Everyone's eyes fell on us as Harry and I made our way towards the staircase that led up to the dormitories.

"The staring will die down once school's in full swing," I whispered to him. He just looked at me in surprise. "I know you better than anyone, Harry. Not to mention I know for a fact their not staring at me," I chuckled.

Harry nodded, and stopped, turning to Dean and Seamus, who were sitting closest to us. I knew him talking to anyone was the best idea right now, especially Seamus, who I noticed held one of the Daily Prophet's newspapers in his hand.

"Dean, Seamus," Harry greeted them. "Good holiday?"

"All right," Dean replied, before his face turned uncomfortable. "Better than Seamus' anyway,"

Seamus stood then, slamming down the paper in his hand as hard as he could, even though slamming paper against any surface didn't typically make much of a sound anyway. "Me mum didn't want me to come back this year," Seamus told Harry angrily, glaring at him openly.

"Why not?" Harry asked, though we all knew why.

"Let me see," Seamus muttered sarcastically. "Because of us. The Daily Prophet's been saying a lot of things about you, Harry, and about Dumbledore as well,"

"What, and you mum believes them?" Harry asked angrily.

"Well, nobody was there the night Cedric died,"

"Oh and you should read the Prophet then, like your stupid mother. It will tell you everything you need to know," Harry bit back.

"Don't talk about my mother!" Seamus yelled.

"I'll have a go at anyone that calls me a liar!" Harry growled.

I grabbed Harry's arm, afraid of what this might turn into, but lucky for Seamus Ron walked in. (See what I did there?)

"What's going on?" Ron asked as he stepped out from the portrait hole.

"He's mad, is what's going on," Seamus answered as Ron took his place at Harry's other side. "Do you believe the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who?"

"Yeah. I do," Ron said shortly before he looked around the room. "Has anyone else got a problem with Harry?"

Silence.

And with that, Harry pulled his arm out of my hold and went upstairs, Ron following close behind him.

"I think that was a little bit out of order, don't you?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest as I glared at a huffing Seamus.

"Don't tell me you believe him too," Seamus exclaimed.

"I've none him since first year. I'm one of his best friends. I'm bound to believe him," I threw back.

"Then you're mad too," Seamus snapped.

"I'm mad?" I asked, as if contemplating it as I walked up closer to Seamus, stopping two feet from him. "Call me mad then. Call me mad because I believe Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. Call me mad because Bellatrix Lestrange came to my home and killed my mother in front of my eyes. Call me mad because my father helped murder his own wife and is now covering it up. Call me mad if I have a funny feeling Harry knows what he saw," I growled at him, glaring at his wide surprised eyes. "You don't know what he's been through- none of us do- so call me mad, but not him. Is that clear?"

Seamus stared at me for a long moment before he stepped back away from me and nodded. I gave him one final glare before spinning on my heel and running upstairs and into the girl dormitory.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: *granny voice* And I thought he was such a nice boy.<strong>


	9. Umbitch

After Divination, the next day, we had our first lesson with Professor Umbridge and it was not one I was likely to enjoy. Hermione and I sat next to each other, across from Ron and Harry's desk talking to each other, much like the other fifth years in the class, since Professor Umbridge had not arrived yet.

I smiled as a small paper bird levitated around the room, one of the Patil twins had made it. Just as the small bird was above the Patil twins, it quickly incinerated and fell to dust. The Patil twins both stared at it in horror as if it had been a real bird, lying dead between them.

Everyone went silent and turned to the back of the room to see Professor Umbridge, wearing all pink, lowering her wand, smiling brightly at us all. When she entered the classroom, she gave her sickly sweet greeting before stopping next to me, glaring down at me.

"Yes?" I asked quietly, feeling uncomfortable under her glare.

She glared at me for a while longer before telling me that I should not have my hair in my face, and that it was disrespectful that she could only see one of my eyes. I had to be given a clip for my bangs and tie my hair in a ponytail. I glared at her as I did so from behind my fringe bangs until they were up.

Then, with a 'wands away; instruction, she continued to explained to us what we were to be doing. "Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations. O-W-Ls. More commonly known as OWLs," she told us as she used her wand to write it on the chalk board. "Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so and the consequences may be severe,"

I glanced over at Harry. Even though Professor Umbridge smiled when she said it, it was still one of the creepiest things I had ever heard. Professor Umbridge continued to smile as she pointed her wand at a large stack of books, causing them to slowly float out to the students and levitated to each desk.

"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven," she commented as a book dropped in front of me.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts Basics for Beginners?" I whispered both to myself and to Hermione. Neither of us were beginners when it came to spells. I mean, these new 'textbooks' looked like children's books!

"I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she continued, with a wide smile on her lips. "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed. "Not to mention, extremely dangerous half-breeds,"

"If you mean Professor Lupin," I interrupted angrily. "That's my teacher and good friend you're insulting. _Not to mention_, he was, still is, and _obviously_ will always be the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we ever had,"

"Students will raise their hands in my class," Umbridge snapped, as she turned away from me and to the front of the room, sounding frustrated. When she turned back to me she smiled brightly and quickly said; "Detention, Miss Sherwood. For disrespect and speaking out in my class," she told me sweetly.

I shrunk in my seat, feeling anger rolling in me like crashing waves, rising up each time, until I started to feel my hair trying desperately to turn bright red, but I wouldn't let it, no matter how hard it was to control. If I was going to sit through this class the rest of the year, I would just deal with what was thrown at me, and if I was going to get shit thrown at me, I'd throw some right back.

No one was going to push me around ever again.

"Now," Umbridge began again. "You will be pleased to know, from now on, you will be following a carefully structured Ministry approved course of defensive magic,"

Hermione raised her hand slowly.

"Yes?"

"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells," Hermione pointed out.

Wait… what?

"_Using_ spells?" Umbridge asked, as if Hermione had two heads. Then she laughed and began to walk towards Hermione. "Well I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom,"

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron asked, trying to make things clear.

Umbridge just smiled at him as if he was five years old. "You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way,"

What the bloody hell was she talking about?

"Well, what use is that?" Harry asked. "If we're going to be attacked it won't be in a risk-free way,"

"_Hand_!" Umbridge shrieked stalking up to the front of the classroom again before turning around, a smile still plastered on her face. "It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which after all, is what school is all about,"

"And how is theory supposed to prepare as for what's out there?" Harry asked.

I was glad he did, or I would have had to.

"There is nothing out there, dear," Umbridge insisted. "Who do you imagine would want to attack children like yourself?"

"Oh I don't know," I began sarcastically, trying to sound a bit like Luna and a carefree person at the same time. "Maybe Cornish Pixies, Antonin Dolohov, hippogriffs, Fenrir Greyback, kelpie, Bellatrix Lestrange, bad werewolves…"

"And Lord Voldemort," Harry added, sounding tons more serious than I.

The room fell into an uncomfortable and awkward silence, and Umbridge looked like she had just gotten hit in the head by a Bludger. Unfortunately, she pulled herself together again and sighed, but kept the smile on her face.

"Let me make this quite plain," Umbridge began. "You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard is at large once again. This. Is. A. Lie,"

"It is not a lie!" Harry shouted. "I saw him! I fought him!"

"Detention, Mr. Potter!" Umbridge shouted at Harry.

I felt my blood begin to boil. "So according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?"

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," Umbridge insisted quickly, looking as if she was trying to compose herself but was epically failing to do so.

"It was murder!" I shouted at the idiot.

"Lord Voldemort killed him!" Harry continued for me. "You must know that!"

"Enough!" Umbridge suddenly screeched.

I immediately shut my mouth, seeing how frazzled the professor had become, and I could only imagine her yanking her hair out and fire coming out of her nose and ears like a dragon of some sort. But just as quickly as the outburst came, the smile was back on her face.

"Detention, Mr. Potter, Miss Sherwood. My office. After class," she breathed, before letting out a small giggle.

I sunk back down into my seat and glanced over at Harry, letting the fear show in my eyes as I looked at him. This could not end well.

* * *

><p>After everyone had left after class had let out, Harry and I walked with our feet dragging, up to Umbridge's office. Harry gave a soft rap on the door before the two of us entered my version of hell.<p>

I entered the DADA office after Harry, where I had seen pictures of himself all over the walls from Lockheart's time, interesting specimens and animals in Lupin's time, and Dark detectors and large lenses in the fake Moody's time here. But now I was met with disgusting pink wallpaper and painted plates neatly lining the walls with kittens on them. Perhaps it was supposed to come off as cute, but the whole office made me want to vomit.

"Your room…" I began, turning to take in the rest. Everything was neatly lined, as if she had OCD. It reeked of perfume and reminded me of some little old lady's home. It sort of was. Umbridge was getting there, at least.

"Yes?" she held her smile tight, sipping her overly sugary tea.

"It's…" I searched for a word to describe it. "Fitting," I decided.

Umbridge nodded toward two desks, which the two of us quickly sat at, setting down our things. I looked down at the parchment sitting in front of me and frowned. Maybe she was as old fashioned as she was stupid?

"You are both be going to be doing some lines for me today. And you'll be using very special quills of mine. Here," Umbridge told in her sick sickly sweet tone, handing both of us quills that she pulled out of her desk drawer. "Now… I want you to write, 'I must not tell lies'," she told us softly.

"How many times?" I asked.

"Oh," she thought about it before a smile appeared on her face. "As long as it takes for the message to _sink in_," she told me, with the merest suggestion of humor in her voice, making me think there was more to that statement than what she was letting on.

Sitting at her desk, she started writing.

"You haven't given us any ink," Harry told her, looking a little irked.

"Oh, you won't need ink," Umbridge told us.

Looking down at the parchment, I wrote the first slowly across the parchment, but as I did, a sensation came over my other hand, making me fidget. Once I finished the line, I gasped in pain and dropped the quill in fright. Looking down at my hand, I saw five red words carved into it in my own hand writing.

_**I must not tell lies. **_

I was writing in my own blood!

I heard Harry grunting in pain beside me and I looked over to see the same was happening to him. He looked up at me, fear and surprise in his eyes as we stared at me. I looked at him sadly before turning away from him.

Glancing at Umbridge, I saw her smiling at me so I picked up my quill again and started to write over and over again 'I must not tell lies'. I was not going to show her weakness.

"Yes?"

I looked up to see her looking at Harry, who hadn't continued writing his lines, and was staring at her in looking horror struck.

"Nothing," Harry suddenly said.

"That's right," Umbitch smiled. "Because you know, deep down, that you deserve to be punished,"

I kept myself from rolling my eyes and continued to write. What got me through it most was writing quickly across the page. The faster I went, the sooner the feeling of a knife cutting my skin left me. I also kept singing in my head the whole time, instead of focusing on the pain.

After what must have been hours, and I had filled up the front of my parchment, Umbridge told us to stop and to show her our hands. She looked at Harry's first and merely tutted. Then, taking mine, she looked at it. The blood was as bright as how my hair would have looked it I let it change at will. She smiled though when I winced as her stubby fingers 'accidentally' poked on of the words.

"A little pain, dear?" she asked sweetly, as if concerned.

"No, Professor Umbridge," I replied, taking away my hand, letting a smile grace my face. "None at all,"

She straightened and glared at me, before turning back to her desk.

Once she had dismissed us, Harry and I bolted to the door and out of the classroom, heading to Gryffindor Tower, now that it was so late. I only stopped once I was through the portrait hole and in the deserted common room, when I noticed my hand was dripping. I quickly pulled out my handkerchief out of my pocket, wrapping it round my hand. The blood quickly soaked it though.

Looking up for Harry, I found him on the opposite side of the room, his foot on the stairs leading up the dorms, looking back at me. His eyes probably mirrored mine, sad, angry and in pain.

Slowly, he walked back over to me.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

I looked down at the now red handkerchief and sighed. "Yeah, I mean, I should be used to a little pain by now, right?" I asked, trying to make the both of us laugh… at least chuckle?… I didn't work.

"No, you shouldn't," he told me, pulling his own hand out to examine it.

"Here," I said softly. Reaching forward, I took his hand in mine before I took my wand from my robe and gently placed the tip of it on Harry's cut. "_Torpidius_," A small blue wisp came from it and spread over Harry's hand, cooling it, and hopeful making it smart a bit less. "That should take away the sting. It should be fine tomorrow," I told him, letting go of his hand.

"Thanks, Rebecca," Harry smiled sadly, as he brought his hand to his other and rubbed it.

"No problem, boy wonder," I smiled, moving forward and giving Harry a much needed hug. At least I needed one.

We both said goodnight and moved to our own dorms to go to sleep, however, I didn't go to sleep right away. I laid in my bed for a few minutes, staring at my hand, which burned like a small fire, reading the line to myself.

As I looked at it, I knew that the idea of there being a shift in power over the school was correct and that this year was going to be the most eventful to date.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I would have voted Umbitch off the island.<strong>


	10. Just Lines

The next day, the first thing Hermione asked me when we got up was how my detention was. I just shrugged my shoulders as I continued getting ready for the day, saying it wasn't too much, only lines. Luckily for me, during the summer after third year I had been into fingerless gloves, so I was wearing a thin plain dark one to cover up the line and any blood.

"At least it was only lines," Hermione commented with a shrug. "It's not as if it's a dreadful punishment, really,"

Oh, if she only knew what Harry and I had had to do.

Once she'd gone, I took off the glove and looked at my hand. It looking like an angry animal, the words swelling a bit. Hearing Hermione call me, I pulled the glove back on and left the dorm.

* * *

><p>It was probably a month or so later, that Harry and I were sitting in the common room, Harry studying, and I finishing off some homework when Ron and Hermione walked in.<p>

"… you're honestly one of the most wonderful people I've ever met. If I'm ever mean to you again-"

"I'll know you've gone back to normal," Hermione finished as she and Ron sat down on either side of Harry. "What's wrong with your hand?"

I looked up, shocked, and quickly hid my gloved hand in my lap, as a gut wrench reaction. However, it wasn't my hand Hermione was staring at (not that she would be since I was wearing a glove) but Harry's.

He quickly hid his hand under his book and showed her his right hand, giving her a curious look. "Nothing,"

"Your other hand," Hermione corrected, grabbing his hand out from under his book and pulling it into her lap.

It looked better since the last time I saw it, even though it was completely scared over and angry looking. Mine however, looked a bit different. I had not been as 'good' as Harry had been, so I had been seeing Umbitch around once a week. My hands ached from all the writing, and my left hand now said a few more things.

"You have to tell Dumbledore," Harry said immediately.

"No," Harry insisted ripping his hand from her grip. "Dumbledore's got enough on his mind right now. Besides, I don't want to give Umbridge the satisfaction,"

"Bloody hell, Harry! The woman's torturing you," Ron jumped in. "If the parents knew about this-"

"Well I haven't got any of those have I, Ron?" Harry snapped, looking back down at his textbook.

I looked back down at my own work and hoped that Hermione and Ron wouldn't connect the dots and be led to me and my bleeding hand.

I hoped wrong.

"Rebecca, let me see your hand," I heard Hermione tell me.

"It's just as bad as Harry's," I murmured, writing the last sentence on my homework, and was now packing up my books.

"Let me see your hand," she insisted.

"No," I growled.

But before I knew it she had my hand was pulling off the glove, making me gasp as she pulled at the lines, since the blood had dried to both my skin and the glove she was pulling off. Once the glove was finally off, I watched as all of their eyes widened as they stared down at my hand.

It was angry, red, and bleeding, with 'I must not tell lies' etched deeper into my hand, along with a new line that said, 'I must show respect'

"Harry," Hermione began, turning back to Harry, my hand still in hers so that she could aim it for Harry to see. "You and Rebecca have got to report this. It's perfectly simple, you're being-"

"No, it's not," Harry interrupted, dropping his eyes from my hand. "Hermione, whatever this is, it's not simple. You don't understand," he sighed, packing up his things.

"Then help us to," Hermione tried, but Harry was already gone.

I sighed and pulled my glove back on before grabbing my books off the coffee table and standing. "To tell you the truth Hermione, I don't think he understands either," I told her softly.

"Then _you_ report this," Hermione tried, standing up beside me. "We'll go with you, won't we, Ron?" Ron nodded his head and stood.

I sighed and looked down at my covered up hand. This did need to stop, and hitting Umbitch through McGonagall or Dumbledore would probably hurt her most, even if it seemed a bit weak from me. Slowly I nodded. "But we'll talk to McGonagall, and we don't tell Harry,"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Ever since her mum died and her father became her stepfather, she doesn't want to be surpressed and she's been acting out toward Umbitch. Just in case you were wondering.<strong>


	11. Umbitch, High Inquisitor

**Author's Note: You're half way done! And you haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. ****Continue!**

* * *

><p>The next day Harry and I walked around the ground of Hogwarts quietly, having just gone to the Owlery, where Harry and I had sent a letter to Sirius. Mine consisted with what was going on at Hogwarts, my concerns about Umbridge and some questions I had for him, about him and mum.<p>

I was pretty sure by now that all the time I was spending with Harry was making him annoyed with me. I mean, I liked spending time with him, and I think we both needed it, even if we were silent the whole time. I spent time with him because he was the only one that knew what I was going through with my mums death, and I also spent time with him so that he wasn't alone. Him? He just seemed to try to ignore me.

So we were walking down to Hagrid's hut now, I don't know why, since we both knew he wasn't at home. But then Harry bypassed it and looked up as one of the horse-like creatures flew over us and into the forest, waling quietly.

"Come on," I smiled, taking his unscarred hand in mine, I pulled him after me into the forest until we came to a clearing full of the creatures.

"Hello Harry Potter and Rebecca Sherwood," Luna called, not even turning around. I smiled over at her and pulled Harry with me as I watched Luna pet he creatures.

"Your feet. Aren't they cold?" Harry asked.

"A bit," she nodded. "Unfortunately all of my shoes have disappeared," she then leaned forward and whispered; "I suspect Nargles are behind it,"

"What are they?" I asked, wanting to move on. "They're called Thestrals," she explained at the one she had been petting walked away from us, stretching out it's wings. "They're quite gentle, really, but people avoid them because they're a bit…"

"Different," Harry finished.

Luna nodded and began to walk towards a baby Thestral, reaching down into her bag to pull out an apple.

"But why can't the others see them?" Harry asked, as he caught up to her.

"They can only be seen by people who've seen death,"

"So… you've known someone who's died, then?" Harry asked slowly.

"My mum," Luna nodded.

At that Harry glanced over at me, but I quickly looked away from him, and over at the momma Thestral.

"She was quite an extraordinary witch, but she did like to experiment and one day, one of her spells went badly wrong," Luna continued. "I was nine,"

"I'm sorry,"

"Yes, it was rather horrible actually. I do feel very sad about it sometimes, but I've got Dad," Luna smiled.

She then tossed the apple to the baby Thestral, who smelled it before knocking it away with it's nose and looking back up at Luna expectantly.

"We both believe you, by the way," Harry and I looked over at her, Harry looking somewhat confused, so Luna continued. "That He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Names is back, and you fought him, and the Ministry and the Prophet are conspiring against you,"

"Thanks. It seems you're about the only ones that do," I elbowed him lightly and glared before he corrected himself. "You and Rebecca, I mean,"

I smiled.

"I don't think that's true," Luna said shaking her head as she reached into her bag again. "But I suppose that's how he wants you to feel,"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, if I were You-Know-Who, I'd want you to feel cut off from everyone else because if it's just you alone you're not as much of a threat," Luna smiled, with a tilt of her head.

"You're very wise," I smiled at her.

"I think it's because I was bit by a gnome before I came to school," she told me before she pulled out a piece of steak and threw it to the baby Thestral, who quickly gobbled it up.

Harry and I looked at each other before we started to chuckle lightly at the comment, making Luna smile. After we all spent a while longer with the Thestrals, the three of us walked back to the castle, the whole way Luna explaining what her dad had found out about gnomes and their saliva.

Once back at the castle, I was surprised that instead of beelining for Gryffindor Tower, Harry headed toward the Great Hall, where I knew lunch was no taking place. It made me smile really.

I followed him into the Great Hall where I spotted Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George all sitting together eating, Hermione glaring at Ron whose mouth was overflowing. Harry approached them slowly, and only when he stopped next to Hermione, did she look up at the two of us.

"Harry," she smiled a little awkwardly.

"Can we join you?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked over at me and smiled, knowing what I had said that night on platform had finally come into effect. He had finally figured out that he wasn't as alone as he thought he had been. Hermione then turned to the others who were watching, looking stunned, before nodding. Harry and I were about to sit when they heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Umbridge arguing outside of the Great Hall, causing the lot of us to jump up and run out to see what was going on.

"Pardon me, Professor," I could hear Professor Umbridge saying. "But what exactly are you insinuating?"

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices," McGonagall explained.

I knew that this was all about that Hermione and I had told her last night, and I was glad to see that McGonagall was taking her down.

"So silly of me," Umbridge began. "But it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, _Minerva_," She took a step up the stairs.

"Not at all, _Dolores_," A step up. "Merely your medieval methods," Professor McGonagall explained, getting frustrated with the new bi- professor.

"I am sorry, dear," Umbridge said. "But to question my practices is to question the Ministry, and by extension, the Minister himself. I am a tolerant woman, but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty,"

McGonagall paused for a moment before she took a step backwards and back down a step. "Disloyalty?" McGonagall asked, shocked.

Umbitch smiled and took another step up the stairs so that she could talk to those of us gathered in front of the Great Hall. "Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared," Umbridge said. "Cornelius will want to take immediate action,"

I exchanged looks with Harry. If the Ministry was about to really get involved in Hogwarts, things were going to get bad very fast.

* * *

><p>We were right. Thing changed quickly after Umbitch had been promoted to the post of Hogwarts High Inquisitor and could therefore make any ridiculous rule she wanted and harass all the teachers about their qualifications. Those ridiculous rules now hung outside of the Great Hall like pimples on someone's face. We were not allowed to use magic <em>anywhere<em>. We had to wear our uniforms all the time and correctly. We weren't allowed anywhere near each other (it was mostly for couples). We couldn't listen to music. The Weasley twins tricks and other products were banned from the school.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and I now stood in front of the Great Hall as Filch finished posting another of Umbridge's new rules, though I didn't take the time to read the stupid thing.

"She almost made Professor Trelawney cry today, because Professor Umbridge tried to force her to predict something," I murmured.

"I don't like Professor Trelawney or her teaching," Hermione commented, as she turned away from the wall. "But that's cruel,"

"The Ministry is completely backing her," Ron grumbled as the four of us began to walk down the halls. "Percy's working for the Minister and said that her job is to address the 'failing standards at Hogwarts'," Ron rolled his eyes.

"Things are getting out of hand," Harry growled.

Suddenly, they heard a group of students running through the hallways muttering to each other. The four of us exchanged a look before following them until Harry caught up to Cho Chang. "Cho, what's going on?" he asked.

"It's Professor Trelawney,"

That's all she had to say before I was sprinting to through the groups of student until I spotted Professor Trelawney standing in the center of the courtyard with all her belongings by her feet. Filch threw her last suitcase at her, causing her to stumble back into her trunk as she stuttered in fear, looking down at her bags.

Then Umbitch appeared, and made her way through the crowd toward Professor Trelawney, smiling as usual.

"Sixteen years I've worked and lived here," Trelawney began, her voice trembling. "Hogwarts is my home. You can't do this!"

"Actually I can," Umbridge said smiling, holding up a folded sheet of paper.

Professor McGonagall appeared then, moving past Harry and I, and made her way to Professor Trelawney and hugged her as she began to sob into her shoulder.

"Something you'd like to say dear?" Umbridge asked as she caught McGonagall glaring openly at her.

"Oh there are several things I'd like to say," McGonagall spat at Umbridge before turning back to comforting Professor Trelawney.

"She can't just fire and banish Professor Trelawney," I whispered angrily to Hermione and Harry. "She's not the Headmaster,"

"Don't give her any ideas," Hermione whispered back.

Right then, Dumbledore swept into the courtyard and stood in front of Umbridge, staring her down. "Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore began. "Might I ask you to escort Sybil back inside?"

Professor Trelawney's eyes practically lit up behind her microscope-like eyeglasses. McGonagall nodded and began ushering the frazzled professor inside. "Oh, thank you!" Trelawney said, shaking Dumbledore's hand. "Thank you!"

"Dumbledore," Umbridge began. "May I remind you that under the terms of Educational Decree 23, as enacted by the Minister-"

Dumbledore quickly cut her off. "You have the right to dismiss my teachers, you do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds. That power remains with the headmaster,"

A small smile ran across Umbridge's face. "For now," was as she said, making me shiver in fright at the thought of her being in anymore control that she already was.

"Don't you all have studying to do?" Dumbledore suddenly exclaimed as he spun around and went back inside.

Everyone started to disperse and Harry ran off trying to catch up with Dumbledore. I, however, turned to Hermione, who was leaning against a column. "We have to do something," I growled angrily. Hermione nodded and the two of us headed back inside.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I felt so bad for Trelawney. Umbridge is just a bitch!<strong>


	12. DA

Harry, Ron, Hermione and I were currently sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room… well, Harry, Ron and I were sitting, Hermione was pacing angrily. After the events earlier that day, Hermione was furious with Umbridge.

"That foul, evil, old gargoyle!" Hermione shouted. "We're not learning how to defend ourselves, we're not learning how to pass our OWLs. She's taking over the entire school!"

I sighed and leaned back in my seat beside Ron. "Just realized that, did you?" I asked. "I've had that feeling since she arrived," Instantly, my hand mover the back of my left, feeling the raced angry skin beneath my glove.

"… top priority," I turned around in my seat as Harry turned up the radio so the rest of us could hear Fudge. "Furthermore, we have convincing evidence that these disappearances are the work of notorious mass murderer Sirius Black,"

I laughed. "And I'm a pretty little butterfly," I muttered sarcastically rolling my eyes at the radio.

"Harry!" I spun around as the sound of Sirius' voice coming from the fireplace, and found his head coming out of the flames, looking up at all of us.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed, running over to the fireplace.

I followed suit, kneeling down next to him, and smiling at my father. "Hey Sirius, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Wondering why you aren't calling me Dad," Sirius smiled, before chuckling and looking over at Harry. "I'm answering your letter," Sirius said, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "You said you were worried about Umbridge. What's she doing now? Training you to kill half-breeds?"

"Sirius she's not letting us use magic at all," Harry told him.

"Well I'm not surprised," Sirius sighed. "The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat,"

"Combat?" Ron asked. "What does he think, that we're forming some sort of wizard army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks, that Dumbledore is assembling his own forces to take on the Ministry. He's becoming more paranoid by the minute," Sirius sighed then and looked back to Harry. "The others wouldn't want me telling you this, Harry, but things aren't going at all well with the Order. Fudge is blocking the truth at every turn, and these disappearances are just how it started before. Voldemort is on the move,"

"Well what can we do?" Harry asked.

Sirius was about to answer but something stopped him. "Hold on,"

His head disappeared for a moment before I screamed as a hand suddenly came out of nowhere, almost grabbing my ankle. A hand with short, stubby fingers.

Umbridge!

Hermione gasped as she, Harry and Ron scrabbled to their feet and ran up the stairs. I was still sat by the fire, panting out of shock, watching in fear as the hand grasped for anything it could in front of me. I was almost paralyzed to the spot in fear. Umbridge had almost caught Sirius. That had been a close call. Unfrozen, I jumped up and away, running up the stairs after Harry, Ron and Hermione, until I found them, whispering to each other.

"He's really is out there, isn't he?" Hermione asked. (**Author's Note: She means Voldemort**)

Harry just nodded.

"We've got to be able to defend ourselves. And if Umbridge refuses to teach us how, we need someone who will," Hermione said firmly. "We need teachers willing to teach us," Hermione told us before looking over at Harry and I, and the both of us stared at her in shock. "Isn't it obvious? I'm talking about the two of you," she said pointing to Harry and I.

"Wait, what?" I asked, now really confused.

"Harry has had experience fighting the Dark Arts, but you have got tons of spells in your arsenal," Hermione continued to explain.

"This is mad. Who'd wanna be taught by me?" I asked.

"At least you're not some sort of nutter," Harry commented.

"Look on the bright side," Ron began with a smile. "You two can't be worse that old toad face,"

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Ron,"

"I'm here for you,"

* * *

><p>Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were positioned at the front of a room full of students, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs alike. There had to be at least twenty crowded in Hog's Head. Ron sat at the table we had up front while Harry, Hermione, and I sat in some stools nervously before Hermione stood and addressed everyone.<p>

"Uh… hi," Hermione began, looking around the roomnervously. "So, you all know why we're here, we need a teacher… A _proper_ teacher. One who's had real experience defending against the dark arts,"

"Why?" asked some git.

"Why?" Ron exclaimed. "Because You-Know-Who's back, you tosspot!"

"So he says," the boy argued, referring to Harry.

"So Dumbledore says," Hermione added.

"So Dumbledore says because he says. The point is where's the proof?" the boy continued to argue making me roll my eyes in frustration.

"If Potter could tell us more about how Diggory got killed…" a different boy said, making me glare at him before I jumped up.

"Harry's not going to talk about Cedric, so if that's why you're here, clear out now," I snapped before Harry jumped up and turned towards the exit, which just so happened to be past me.

"Come on Rebecca, they're here because they think I'm some freak-" he tried to convince me to let him by.

"Is it true you can produce a Patronus charm?" Luna asked suddenly, grabbing Harry's and my attention.

"Yes," I answered when Harry didn't. "A stag,"

"Blimey, Harry! I didn't know you could do that!" Dean exclaimed.

"And he killed a basilisk, with the sword, in Dumbledore's office," Neville added.

"It's true," I agreed, trying not to wince at the memory.

"Third year, he fought off about a hundred Dementors at once," Ron contributed.

"And last year, he really did fight off You-Know-Who in the flesh," Hermione finished.

"Wait!" Harry exclaimed, making me jump a little. "Look, it all sounds great when you say it like that, but the truth is most of that was just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I nearly always had help,"

"… He's just being modest-" Hermione insisted.

"No, Hermione, I'm not!" Harry interrupted her, trying to get what he was trying to say out. "Facing this stuff in real life is not like school. In school, if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow, but out there when you're a second away from being murdered or watching a friend die before your eyes… you don't all know what that's like," Harry told everyone, glancing over at me.

"You're right Harry," I nodded. "That's why they need your help. If we're going to have any chance at beating Voldemort, we can't be going off of theory,"

"He's really back," a young boy gaped.

Harry and I nodded.

"Well? Where can we sign up?" Fred and George asked together.

Hermione smiled. "Um… just come over and sign your name,"

I moved away from Harry's side and stood beside the table where Hermione was now standing and Ron sat, a piece of parchment and a quill lying before them.

After about a minute of standing and watching people sign up, I found myself missing Harry's company, and to my relief he shifted to stand beside me. I smiled at him as the queue that had formed lengthened until everyone in the room was waiting to write down their name.

I looked over at Harry to see him smiling, and would have smiled too, if I hadn't noticed what he had been smiling at. There stood Cho Chang with her friends, giggling as she stared at Harry nervously. It made my blood boil just as much as Umbitch made it boil when she was being a controlling bitch.

What was going on with me?

* * *

><p>Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Fred, George and I walked quickly back from Hogsmeade. We were all excited about the prospect of our new group.<p>

"First we've got to find a place to practice where Umbridge won't find out," Harry began, getting down to business.

"The Shrieking Shack?" Ginny offered.

"It's too small," I told her.

"The Forbidden Forest?" Hermione suggested.

"Not bloody likely!" Ron responded. I chuckled at his horrified response, since I new for a fact what lurked within the forest that scared Ron so much.

"Harry, what happens if Umbridge does find out?" Ginny asked.

"Who cares?" Hermione exclaimed. I was stunned by her response. "I mean, it's sort of exciting, isn't it? Breaking the rules," She looked to me for an agreement and I giggled but nodded my head.

"Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?" Ron asked. Hermione rolled her eyes and looked to Harry. "Anyway, at least we know one positive thing that came from today," Hermione said, a small smile on her face.

"What's that?" Harry asked, unsure of what she meant.

"Cho couldn't take her eyes off you, could she?" Hermione pointed out.

Blood boiling. Anger rising. Hair turning color.

"Whoa," both twins gasped.

Before the others could turn around, I forced my hair back to it's usual shades of brown, and wiped the angry look off my face.

"What?" Ron and Harry asked the two grinning twins.

"Oh nothing-" "-it's just everything went-" "-red for a minute," the twins laughed as they glanced over at me.

"Alright?" Harry said, eyeing to twins before turning back around and entering the courtyard. "Over the next few days we should each come up with a couple of possibilities of places we can practice. We've got to make sure wherever it is, there is no chance she can find it,"

We all nodded as we headed to Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: The twins would totally do that. <strong>

**Review!**


	13. Second

Not a week later, we found a place to hold our DA meetings. Neville had found the Room of Requirement, which was now all set up for practices. Harry and I then started teaching our friends spells that Umbridge would have never taught them, and some fun ones.

Our first lesson had been interesting, Harry and I explaining the Disarming Charm, before everyone got into a line, starting with Neville. Before him stood the practice dummy holding a wand. Neville didn't get it however, so as the other's went through, I pulled those he needed work off to the side to give them pointers, while those who were getting it practiced with Harry.

A week or two went by and we continued to practice Expelliarmus, but added more spells as we went, like Stupefy, which had been a fun lesson since Harry and I decided to give a demonstration.

"Stunning is one of the most useful spells in your arsenal," Harry began. "It's a wizard's bread and butter, really,"

"Using Stupefy can cause a range of effects on your target," I continued after Harry had stopped talking, turning back to me from across the room. "Depending on the power you put behind it you can, send your opponent flying, sending a mild jolt through your target, or even knock them out,"

Harry and I nodded to each other before we began out 'duel'.

"_Stupefy_!"

I blocked Harry's Stunner, and sent mine at him. "_Stupefy_!" I yelled, and Harry was sent flying backward. For doing this, I got a glare from Harry's prized student pet, Cho, who looked worriedly over at Harry before glaring at me.

Probably the best part of being in the DA, was watching Hermione stun Ron, who had just told her he would go easy on her.

Weeks went by and we continued practicing, slowly adding more and more spells about every week for people to try, like, the Impediment Charm, the Shrinking Charm, Levicorpus, Reducto, and a few others. I helped Harry correcting people and teaching but later on I also took some of the students aside, who seemed to be getting it, and gave them a few extra spells that would help, like the Shielding Charm, the Fixing Charm, Episkey, Expulso, and the Cunfundus Charm.

However, while learning all of these, we kept having to dodge Filch as he tried to find our base of operations. To this, the Weasley twins decided to give Filch some candies, which ended up being Fever Fudge that caused Filch to have huge pussy pimples all over his face. Eventually, Umbitch had to stoop as low as to enforce rule 82, which said all students had to submit to questioning. But even that didn't get the two of them any leads, so next Umbridge had to start an Inquisitorial Squad, which was made up mostly of Slytherins, to try and catch us, which was failing miserably.

* * *

><p>It was now the last DA practice until after winter break, and everyone was practicing like mad, while Harry and I walked around, correcting people.<p>

"Hard work is important to achieve anything," I began. "But with magic there's something that matters even more: believing in yourself,"

"Think of it this way;" Harry continued as he moved about the room. "Every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than what we are now: students. If they can do it, why not us?"

Harry and I walked over to where a circle of people, half of which were Weasleys, were standing around the dummy, batting it around with different spells, until it turned on Ginny. "_Reducto_!" The dummy turned to dust and the little pieces feel through the grate in the floor. Everyone looked up and stared at Ginny, either in surprised or in awe, while Ron looked annoyed.

"You broke the dummy," I whined to her in a baby voice which made her and the twins laugh.

Harry and I moved on then until I reached Neville, who as I passed finally did the Disarming Charm correctly, causing one of the Patil twin's wands to go flying across the room. The room fell silent before everyone started cheering for Neville and congratulating him happily.

"Good job," I smiled at him before pulling him down toward me to give him a kiss on the cheek. When he pulled back he was blushing like mad.

About a half hour later, the meeting was coming to end, so Harry, Ron, Hermione and I gathered at the head of the room so that Harry could speak. "So, that's it for this lesson. Now, we're not gonna be meeting again until after the holidays," There was a room wide 'Aww' before Harry continued. "So just keep practicing on your own as best you can and well done, everyone. Great, great work,"

There was applause, especially from Harry's class pet which made me sick.

Instantly everyone began to leave at there own pace until it was only the twins, Harry, Cho, Ginny and I left in the room. Both Ginny and I were waiting quietly for the twins as they talked to Harry, though the two of us knew that we weren't actually waiting for the twins. We were watching Harry who was watching Cho. I don't know why it bugged me so much, but it made my hair want to turn bright red and grow until it toughed the floor.

"Hey Ginny. Hey Rebecca," the twins greeted us as they got to the door.

I glanced under their arms to see Harry and Cho standing next to each other talking, Cho crying and Harry comforting her.

"Bye guys," I muttered before I hurried out of the door with Ginny, walking at a fast pace beside her.

"What was all that about?" she asked once we were clear of the twins.

"Sorry. I just want to get back to the dorm," I told her, slowing my pace down to a comfortable walk. "I don't want detention with Umbridge because we were out after curfew," I explained.

"We have time," Ginny assured me before it looked like something clicked in her head and she nodded. "Oh, I get it,"

"What?" I looked at her, puzzled. I didn't think I had explained anything to her, so how could she know more than me?

"Oh come on, Rebecca. Don't make me say it!" she laughed.

"Say what? What?" my voice rose, either from excitement or frustration, I couldn't tell, but what ever she thought she knew, I wanted to know.

"You like Harry," she smiled.

"I like- What?"

"Don't worry, your secrets in safe hands, considering I've like him on and off since my first year," Ginny said simply.

"How did you come to the conclusion that I like Harry? I mean, he's my best friend!" I exclaimed.

"Because you spend so much time with him. Because you believe without any proof, more than anyone else. Because you stand up for him. But most of all, because of the way you look at him," she told me.

"Is that so?" I asked.

"Why else would your hair turn bright red at the mention of Cho Chang, Harry's current love interest?" she asked.

"How did you-"

"Fred and George told me," she interrupted.

"Of course,"

"Don't worry, Rebecca," Ginny smiled as we finally walked up to the Fat Lady. "He likes you, too. He just doesn't realize how much… yet,"

* * *

><p>"Well, how was it?"<p>

"Wet," Harry answered. I coughed loudly, trying to hide the laugh that had nearly escaped.

About a minute ago, Harry had come in the common room in a daze, and he told us he had just kissed Cho, and if I thought my blood was boiling before, I was sitting on the sun now. Of course hadn't made things better by egging Harry on to telling us all about it.

"I mean, she was sort of crying," Harry continued to explain.

"That bad at it, are you?" Ron chuckled.

"I'm sure Harry's kissing was more that satisfactory," Hermione suddenly put in, and I was suddenly glad I hadn't said anything. "Cho spends half her time crying these day," Hermione continued.

"You'd think a bit of snogging would cheer her up," Ron smiled.

"Don't you understand how she must be feeling?" Hermione suddenly exclaimed. "Well, obviously she's feeling sad about Cedric and confused about liking Harry and guilty about kissing him, conflicted because Umbridge might sack her mum from the Ministry and frightened of failing her OWLs because she's worrying about everything else," Hermione finished in a rush.

"One person couldn't feel all that. They'd explode," Ron commented, and I was likely to agree with him, except I was dealing with a lot more than Cho was, and I didn't feel like exploding.

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon…" Hermione commented. We all stopped and looked at each other before starting to laugh… well, Harry and Ron chuckling, me snickering, and Hermione laughing her head off.

But when Ron and Harry continued to talk about kissing Cho, I immediately got up and went to bed, leaving the three of them behind to stare at my back as I left the room.

This whole thing with Harry was annoying me, not to mention when you added Cho to it all. So Harry'd got his first kiss? So what? It's not like Cho is anything amazing. She was so wrapped up with Cedric's death and she thought crying in front of Harry was going to make him talk about it then she obviously didn't know him well enough. Harry was not going to talk about Cedric because he didn't want to remember it.

I hated Cho, and I kept on wondering; How could I like my best friend?

I growled as I finally flung myself onto my bed after putting on my fluffy pajamas. Why did life have to be so wonderful and complicated and cruel?

Images of Gregory Sherwood yelling down at me, or getting so angry at me for no reason played across my mind, images of him standing over my mother's body after her death. Why had he married my mother in the first place? Just to have her? More pureblood mania? Or had he actually loved her at one point? And if so, why couldn't he have loved me? He had hurt me and hated me for so many years! He had helped murder his own wife, my mother. Why did life have to be so cruel? Why did he have to be so cruel?

I hated him.

Images of my mum flashed across my eyes. No, I hadn't forgot about her. It just hurt to much to remember. It was almost like another life to me now though, and despite how much time I had spent with her, I was afraid that I was forgetting her little by little each day. What was her laugh like? What was her smile like? Why did she always eat her desert first? Why had she chosen duty over love?

I missed her.

Did Sirius miss her just as much as I did? More so? Did he still love her after all these years? The few letters I had gotten from him had been very vague, and it made me wonder if he really cared. Did he want to think of me as his daughter at all? I mean, he already had Harry Potter as his godson, and he seemed to pay more attention to him than me, answering his letters, visiting him through the fireplace, answering his questions about his parents.

Was I second again?

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Y'all know i needed to add in some angst.<strong>


	14. Christmas

I found out the next day about the attack on Mr. Weasley at the Ministry from Hermione. He had been attacked by a snake while on some sort of job in the Ministry. Apparently he was going to make it though, since he had been rescued and taken to St. Mungo's in time.

By the end of the week we were all back at Grimmauld Place, celebrating Christmas with Harry, Sirius, the Weasleys, Hermione, Lupin, Tonks and I, though Tonks and Lupin were constantly coming and going because of the Order and other stuff. By the time Christmas rolled around though, Mr. Wealsey was back, in a wheel chair and bandaged up, but back none the less.

The whole time I was there, I didn't get to spend much time with my dad, (it was still weird to call him that) because he spent most of his time with Harry. This made my emotions swirl so much, I didn't even try to control my hair color, but just let it go on it's own for a while. I mean, yes I liked Harry, but now I also hated Harry because he was hogging by dad! But I knew it was unfair for me to be mad at him since Sirius really was only the family like person he had left, except maybe Lupin. But it still made me angry.

On Christmas Eve, I came down stairs as Mr. Weasley was rolled out and into the kitchen, causing the Weasleys and Hermione to clap happily at his return… to the table. Then they all began to give out presents, which took a while.

"Here, Rebecca," Mrs. Weasley smiled happily as she handed me a package before bustling off again before I could say thank you. I opened it to find a big long multicolored scarf with mittens on the ends.

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley suddenly exclaimed, making me jump. I turned to see Harry walking in, and Sirius standing in the doorway behind him, smiling at me. Mrs. Weasley quickly moved passed me and handed him a package while kissing him on the cheek. "Happy to have both of you with us,"

"A Christmas toast," Mr. Weasley said, from the head of the table. I looked up as the whole table lifted their glasses to, looking down the table at Harry. "To Mr. Harry Potter, without whom I would not be here,"

"Harry!" The others toasted, before sitting and beginning to eat.

* * *

><p>It was only on the last day of winter break that I finally got a substantial amount of time with Sirius. I had been walking down the stairs with the my three best friends, when I noticed a room off to the side. I silently broke off from them and went it, to find the walls covered in pictures and names that were scattered along pictures of tree branches. It was quite a peculiar room, since the walls seemed to be a bit like a family tree.<p>

"Nasty brat, standing there as bold as brass," I jumped and looked down to find Kreacher standing there glaring up at me. "The bastard child of master Sirius and his lover. Friend of mudbloods and blood-traitors alike. If my poor Mistress only knew-"

"Kreacher!" I jumped again, and looked out and into the hallway to see Sirius coming towards the door. "That's enough of your bile. Away with you!"

Kreacher smirked menacingly before starting to leave the room. "Of course, Master," he said with a bow, sounding almost mocking. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black," He then disappeared down the hallway.

"Sorry about that, Becca," Sirius said, entering the room. "He never was very pleasant. Even when I was a boy,"

"You grew up here?" I asked.

"This is my parents' house," Sirius explained, looking around the room. "I offered it to Dumbledore as headquarters for the Order. About the only useful thing I've been able to do," he sighed.

"That can't be true," I said sadly.

Sirius just chuckled at me. "Infinitely kind, just like you mother,"

He still didn't take back his comment.

"This is the Black family tree," Sirius then continued, gesturing to the wall in front of me. "I hated the lot of them. My parents, with their pure-blood mania… I would have like to have fallen in love with a muggle, if I hadn't fallen in love with your mother," Sirius smiled, looking back at me before he looked about the wall again. Sirius sighed again as he pointed to his name. It looked like it the picture above it, like a few others around the room, had been burned off the tapestry. "My mother did that after I ran away. Charming woman. I was sixteen,"

"Where did you go?" I asked.

"Harry's dad's," Sirius said, a small pained look on his face.

After a long moment, I decided to speak up. "Can I ask you a question, Sirius?" I asked.

Sirius smiled. "Only if you try calling me Dad. It's weird that my daughter if calling me by my name. We might as well get used to it sooner or later," Sirius shrugged. "After all, you'll be living with me until your thirty,"

"Who says?" I asked with a smile.

"Your dad says," Sirius told me, being mock serious.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say, Dad," It did sound weird, but I knew he was right, and that I'd need to get used to it at some point. "I want to ask you a question… about mum,"

I could tell he wanted to duck and run, but he didn't, instead that pained look went across his face and he nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Go ahead,"

"I was wondering… do you still love her?" I asked.

I had always wondered. I knew my mum still did, she always had no matter how long it had been. But him? Had it been so long that he merely remembered the love, but no longer felt it.

Sirius looked up at me, with a mixture of surprise and pain on his face. "Of course I do. I loved her the second she called me to bugger off, and I will love her till the moment I can't anymore," Sirius told me, looking completely serious.

"She was right," I smiled. "You are very poetic,"

"She said that?" Sirius smiled.

I nodded. "She also said you were a ladies man, and had major raging hormones,"

Sirius rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Ambrosia would say that wouldn't she?"

There was a knock at the door and I turned to see Hermione standing in the doorway. "Rebecca, time to go,"

I nodded slowly and Sirius wrapped an arm around my shoulder as he led me over to the door. "When all this is over, we'll be a proper family," Sirius assured me with a smile as I looked up at him. "You'll see,"

"And then I'll have an annoying brother," I exclaimed in mock horror as I pressed my forehead into Sirius' shoulder.

"At least your not related," Sirius smiled before he became thoughtful. "I'll have to put you two on opposite sides of the house,"

"Ew! Dad!" I exclaimed.

"Hey! She called me Dad!" Sirius exclaimed happily to Hermione who just rolled her eyes at the two of us.

"Congratulations," I smiled, rolling my eyes at him.

"Come here," Sirius said, rolling his eyes as he opened his arms to me, encompassing me in a big hug. "We will be a family though, Rebecca. I promise, when this is all over, it will be the two of us Blacks and a side of Potter," Sirius murmured into the top of my head.

"Promise?" I asked.

"Promise,"


	15. Proud

As soon as we got back to Hogwarts, we were sent running down towards Hagrid's hut at the news. Hagrid was back. However, we weren't the only ones to hear about this. Umbridge had beat us to him.

"… I am ordering you to tell me where you've been," Umbridge was saying as the four of us listened in through the window.

"I told you," Hagrid said, sounding exasperated and uncomfortable. "I've been away for me health,"

"Your health?" Umbridge asked, a hint of a laugh in her voice.

"Yeah," Hagrid nodded with a smile. "A bit of fresh air, you know?"

"Oh yes," Umbridge said, looking up at the large man. "As gamekeeper fresh air must be difficult to come by. If I were you I shouldn't get too used to being back, in fact I might not bother unpacking at all," She threatened, smiling evilly up at Hagrid before quickly leaving the cottage.

As soon as Umbridge was far enough up the path, the four of us quickly made our way to the door. Harry knocked and Hagrid opened the door in a flash. "Oh come in, come in," Hagrid said, smiling at the four of us. We all walked into the hut and Hagrid sat down in his chair beside the fire.

He looked horrible, looking as ragged and tired as he did, and covered with multiple cuts and bruises, most on his face.

"Hagrid, where've you been?" Harry asked as he sat down next to me.

"This is top secret," he said to us, knowing it was best just to tell us considering he'd probably let it slip later. "Dumbledore sent me to parlay with the giants,"

"Giants?" Hermione asked, making Hagrid shush her. "You found them?"

"Well they're not that hard to find to be perfectly honest. They're so big, you see?" Hagrid pointed out. "I tried to convince them to join the cause, but I wasn't the only one that was trying to win them over,"

"Death Eaters?" Ron asked quietly.

"Yes," Hagrid said simply. "Trying to persuade them to join You-Know-Who,"

"Did they?" Harry asked.

"I gave them Dumbledore's message," Hagrid told us with a slight shrug. "Some of them remembered he was friendly to them I suppose," Hagrid sighed.

"They did this to you?" Harry asked, acknowledging the injuries Hagrid had.

"Not exactly," Hagrid said.

The group all fell silent as Hagrid looked out the window. His expression changed as he stood. The other four followed suit. "It's changing out there, just like last time. There's a storm coming, Harry. We'd all best be ready when she does,"

* * *

><p>Over the next week or so, was interesting, since so much happened.<p>

Harry also ended up asking Cho out. Ron, Hermione and I had watched as Harry started mumbling before Hermione excused us and we dragged Ron off to the library. I was actually pretty thankful, it saved me wanting to throw up as Harry made a fool out of himself again. Harry had asked Cho out to the next Hogsmeade weekend, on Valentine's Day of all days. Well, zip-a-dee-doo-dah for him. Like I really wanted to know about that. Cho and Harry were both just pathetic. Like Cho was _so_ going to get him if she kept acting like that. Harry was a real sucker for the innocent school-girl thing and the 'Oh, Harry!' swoon. And Harry actually asked her out? What spell did she put on him to make him do that? Bloody Cho.

Also, more break outs and murders had happened over the break and during that week. All of this led up to Seamus apologizing to Harry for what he'd said, along with joining the DA, along with a few other people Seamus had coaxed into joining.

The next DA meeting was scheduled, and this time we would be learning the Patronus Charm instead of practicing our defensive spells. I wasn't looking forward to it at all, since I seemed to lack what was most needed to conjure one; a strong happy memory.

So there I was, walking into the Room of Requirement with Harry, who would be teaching the lesson on his own, to find Neville. He was standing in front of a mirror, where a lot of pictures and newspaper clippings had been stuck to, as sort of inspiration. I slowly walked up to him and placed a hand on his arm, his forearm since it was the only bit of his arm I could reach. He didn't looked at me, but just began to speak.

"Fourteen years ago, a Death Eater named Bellatrix Lestrange used a Cruciatus Curse on my parents… She tortured them for information but they never gave in," Neville finally looked down at me as I smiled up at him. "I'm quite proud to be their son," he told me before looking up over my shoulder at Harry. "But I'm not sure I'm ready for everyone to know just yet,"

"We're gonna make them proud, Neville," Harry told him.

"That's a promise," I said, looking back up at the picture to where a younger version of my mum stood, next to my dad.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I never fully understood what happened to Neville's parents until this scene. I feel so bad for him and wish Slytherins would just lay off.<strong>


	16. Sorry

"Make it a powerful memory, the happiest you can remember. Allow it to fill you up," Harry was telling us as we all tried to make our patronus' appear from our wands. "A full-bodied Patronus is the most difficult to produce but shield forms can also be equally useful against a variety of opponents," Harry continued. "Just remember, your Patronus can only protect you for as long as you stay focused,"

I glared at the area in front of me. I had been trying for the past hour to produce a Patronus Charm, I was actually kind of excited to see what my full-bodied patronus was. However, all I got was wisps of magic that died out as soon as it came, much like what Neville was getting.

I looked around the room as random people managed to create their patronus'. Luna, who had a bunny. Fred and George who had a monkey and a raccoon. Ron who had a cute little dog. Ginny who had a horse. Hermione who had an otter. Seamus who had a fox.

Cho Chang's ability to make a patronus from the previous lesson we had had, really sent me into a sour mood. Not only could she produce a patronus, but had nothing other than a swan as her full-bodied… I mean, wasn't the pinnacle of beauty and grace?

But I pushed that all away, and focused again. What was my most powerful memory? Nothing really. My happiest memories were just random times with my mum, and that certainly wasn't cutting it. So now what?

Well, if a single memory wasn't cutting it, maybe a collage would work? I closed my eyes and thought about ever happy moment I had ever had. I remembered all of the times I had spent with my mum, just talking about laughing with her about nothing really important. I remembered getting my first potion right. I remembered meeting Cedric, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna. I remembered all of my crazy adventures with Harry, Ron and Hermione. I remembered our letters to each other. I remembered when Seamus asked me to the Yule Ball. I remembered Harry's smile, and when he had tickled me in the common room in fourth year. I remembered Mum telling me about all of her happy moments with Dad (Sirius), and Sirius telling me all of his happy moments with Mum. I remembered imaging them together, as it would have been if Mum hadn't married my stepfather and Dad hadn't been thrown in jail. I imaged myself happy.

"_Expecto Patronum_," I whispered.

I opened my eyes to find that the wisps coming from the tip of my wand had materialized into a silver wolf, it's shining eyes burning into mine as it watched me. I smiled happily down at it as it decided that I was worthy and that it would be loyal to me. It then turned to look around the room, trying to sense a threat before it moved to stand beside me, watching everyone carefully, even though her tongue began to lull out of the side of her mouth.

"Harry!" I exclaimed happily. He looked over at me, looking confused before his eyes caught on the wolf at my feet watching him.

"Rebecca, you did it!" Harry smiled as he walked over to me. My wolf must have caught on to that happiness surge because it happily got to it's feet and trotted over to him, rubbing it's head on his thigh.

"This is amazing," I breathed as I watched my wolf trot back to me and stand beside me, practically pulsing with pride and loyalty to me.

But then the room shook slightly. My wolf turned toward the entrance of the room and growled angrily before it disappeared like a puff of smoke. The lights began flickering as everyone moved closer together. Harry and I stood in the front of the group as we watched the large mirror smash and fall to the ground, revealing the bare wall behind it. There was a small hole in the wall which Nigel mover towards to peer through, followed by Harry and I. On the outside they could see Umbridge, Filch, and the Inquisitorial Squad.

"I'll make short work of this," I could hear Umbridge saying. "_Bombarda maxima_," Harry grabbed Nigel and yanked him back while I whipped out my wand and through up a shield using Protego. It easily blocked the DA, especially Harry, Nigel and I from the flying debris, sending it back at Umbridge, but as the dust cleared, she did not look amused. The two of us glared at each other until I spotted Draco griping someone's arm and yanking them forward. It was Cho. She had ratted us out!

Umbridge smiled at my reaction and then at the rest of the DA.

"Well what do we have here?" she asked happily.

I knew right then, nothing good was going to come of this, and by good, I meant anything that wouldn't kill us.

* * *

><p>The next day our worst fears were confirmed: Umbitch was now the Headmistress of Hogwarts.<p>

Dumbledore had had to escape from Fudge and Umbitch since he had taken the credit for coming up with the DA. Hermione had felt guilty about that part, since she had wanted the group to be named Dumbledore's Army.

Things changed quickly.

I was now sitting in the nearly cleared out Great Hall, writing more lines into my hand along with the rest of the DA, who were grunting and hissing in pain. I just sighed and continued to write as fast as I could across the parchment, filling it up from top to bottom. Once I was finished, I walked my parchment up to Umbitch and showed it to her with a small defiant smile on my face.

She looked it over before she smiled up at me. "Since you seem so enthusiastic about lines, Miss Sherwood, I believe you should fill up the back of the page as well," she told me.

My smile faltered but only just. I nodded my head and gave her one last glare before returning to my seat, getting pitying looks from my friends as I sat back down. It wasn't that bad really… okay, yeah it was.

A little while later, Umbitch allowed us all to leave though, so it didn't matter that I didn't finish. I exited the Great Hall slowly, walking beside Harry as the blood coming from my hand dripped onto the stone floor, not that I cared if I made a mess.

When Harry and I emerged from the Great Hall, I looked up to see Cho, eyes red and puffy, looking to Harry, pleading with him silently. But instantly he ran off without a word. She stared after him sadly, and I couldn't help what I did next.

"Why?" I growled.

She turned toward me in surprise, but didn't say anything to me.

"Why did you rat us out?" I yelled again.

Cho looked back toward where Harry had disappeared before she sighed and her shoulders slumped. "It doesn't matter,"

"Oh yes it does," I growled at her. "It matters to me. I want to know why the girl Harry is so interested in just got us all into a load of hippogriff shit!"

Cho looked like she was on the verge of crying again, but at least this time she answered my question. "I don't know. I didn't mean to. I was just so scared and confused. When she brought me in to her office and gave me tea, it just all seemed so calm and it all just sort of poured out. I went in not waning to tell her, and I regretted it as soon as I left," Cho insisted, tears coming out of the corners of her eyes now. "I don't know why I did it… but I'm sorry," she insisted before she ran off.

And for the first time all year… I felt bad for her.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I didn't!<strong>


	17. Grawp

We were walking throughout the grounds quietly, Ron, Hermione and I silently following a chest fallen Harry.

"You did everything you could. No one could win against that old hag," Ron decided to say, speaking up.

"Even Dumbledore didn't see this coming," I said with a shrug.

"Harry, if it's anyone's fault, it's ours," Hermione sighed as Harry came to a stop, looking out over the side of the bridge we were on.

"Yeah, we talked you into it," Ron nodded.

"Yeah, but I agreed," Harry said turning back to us. "I tried so hard to help, and all it's done is make things worse," Harry shook his head and turned back around.

"Do you really regret the DA so much?" I asked, speaking up, moving to lean against the wall to look at Harry's face. "As Slytherin as this sounds, we did what we needed to do. The DA was more than some study group, Harry, it was so we would all be ready if the time came that we needed to protect ourselves. So that Ron and his family could, so Hermione could, so Nigel and the other kids could. This isn't just about loosing the school to Umbridge and a few lines. This is about surviving if Bellatrix Lestrange wanted to kill one of us, or Fenrir Greyback decided to attack us, or if the war started tomorrow," I told him. "We needed the DA,"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Harry said, turning away from me. "Because I don't want to do this anymore. All it does is make you care too much. And the more you care, the more you have to lose. So maybe it's just better to just…"

"To what?"

"To go it alone," Harry said simply.

I turned at the sound that went between a snake hissing and someone choking, to find Hagrid hiding badly behind a column, trying to get our attention.

"Hagrid?"

Hagrid didn't say anything to us, but just beckoned for the four of us to follow him. We all gave each other a look, debating on whether or not to follow him before Harry started walking after him, leaving us to follow. Eventually, we walked past Hagrid's hut and into the Forbidden Forest.

"Any idea where he's taking us?" Ron asked quietly. I just shrugged.

"Hagrid why can't you just tell us where you're taking us?" Harry asked.

Hagrid again said nothing as we kept walking, looking around nervously.

Suddenly, it felt like the ground was shaking, and I moved so I could see as, in the distance, a pack of Centaurs ran through the forest.

"I've never seen the Centaurs this riled," Hagrid commented, speaking to us finally. "And they're dangerous at the best of times. If the Ministry restricts their territory much more, they're going to have a full uprising on their hands,"

"Hagrid, what's going on?" Hermione asked.

I could tell from her voice that she was thoroughly freaked out.

"I'm sorry to be so mysterious, you four," Hagrid sighed. "I wouldn't be bothering you at all with it but with Dumbledore gone… I'm likely to be getting the sack any day now. And I couldn't leave without telling someone about him,"

I felt the whole forest rumble again, but stronger this time, and as I looked up my eyes widened as a giant slowly stood up in front on me. It was looking interestedly as some birds that were flying around it's head before he turned as Hagrid yelled to him. It turned and smiled brightly before running at us at full speed. Harry grabbed my arm and yanked me back quickly as we all tried to run back and away from it, trying not to be trampled. Luckily though, it was restricted by a rope, tied around it's waist.

"This is Grawp, me brother," Hagrid said. "Well half-brother, but he's completely harmless, just a little high-spirited, that's all,"

I only just caught registered Grawp bending down before Hermione screamed as Grawp picked her up like a rag doll.

"Grawpy, that is not polite!" Hagrid scolded.

"Hagrid, do something!" Ron shouted, sound desperate.

"We talked about this!" Hagrid shouted to his half-brother. "You do not grab, do you? That is your new friend, Hermione!"

I watched, slightly amused as Ron picked up a large tree branch and swung it at Grawp's foot. This only caused Grawp to lightly nudge Ron backwards with his foot, knocking him down.

"You really thought that was going to work?" I asked Ron with a chuckle, looking down at him. He glared up at me before he stood up and looked back up to Hermione, looking frightened for her. It was cute.

I could hear Hermione yelling at Grawp about putting her down, but he seemed to be ignoring her. Grawp just gave her a distant smile as he looked at her before turning her upside down, making her scream.

"Hermione!" Ron sounded absolutely terrified.

"Grawp!" I called.

Grawp looked down at me as he turned Hermione back around so that she was upright again.

"Grawp? Would you put Hermione down?" I asked.

Grawp looked at me sadly, his eyes flicking to the terrified Hermione in his large hand.

"Grawp, will you put her down?" I asked again, stepping forward.

"What are you doing?" Harry hissed at me, putting a hand on my arm.

"Something," I growled quietly, without looking away from Grawp, who still seemed to be deciding. "Please?"

Grawp suddenly smiled and set Hermione down next to me. From the surpise of it, Hermione stumbled backwards, tripping until Ron caught her.

"You all right?" I heard Ron ask.

"Yeah," I could hear her say, even though I heard her voice tremble a bit.

"Just needs a kind hand is all," I said from my spot, smiling up at Grawp as he watched the three of them.

"I think the two of you have an admirer," I heard Harry comment, but I just ignored him.

"Thank you, Grawp," I smiled at him as he bent down on one knee.

He smiled widely at me like a child before using a finger to pet my head, nearly knocking me over when he did it. Then he jumped up and ran back to his tree. He started digging through the stuff he had there until he straightened, holding up handlebars to a bicycle. He flicked a small bell that was attached before stepping forward and offering it to me. I smiled and took it and flicked the bell, making it ring loudly, causing a smile to appear on Grawp's face. Next I handed it Hermione until she slowly took and flicked the bell herself, making Grawp's smile bigger as he sat down on the ground.

"He gets his own food and all," Hagrid told us. "It's company he'll be needing when I'm gone. You will look after him, won't you?"

I glanced at Hermione who had a small smile on her face as she continued to ring the bell. However, Ron didn't look to happy about the favor Hagrid was asking.

"I'm the only family he's got," Hagrid finished, looking back to Grawp who was smiling at him.

I looked over at Harry who nodded his head. We both knew, he even more than I, how important it was to take care of any family one had.


	18. Toerags

About a week later, Hagrid was fired and shipped off and McGonagall was sent to St. Mungo's after 'getting in the way of Aurors' and being hit by multiple Stunner spells. This left us utterly and completely in Umbitch's stubby, greasy, greedy hands.

One night, when we were all feeling especially low from lines and Umbitch bashing us, I was up late, staring down at my scarred hand. I had been to Umbridge so often for lines because of speaking or misbehaving that I thought my lines would never heal. 'I must not tell lies' was probably the most healed of them all, next being 'I must not rebel' and then 'I must not keep secrets'. I had decided a while ago to 'fix' then of course using a marker to write; 'I must not tell lies… unless absolutely necessary' or 'I must not rebel… except against Umbitch' and 'I must not keep secrets… unless they're good ones'. I didn't make them hurt less though.

I looked up into the empty room to see Harry come in, having returned from Occlumency lessons from Snape, to sit on the couch next to me. I saw him glanced at my line covered hand, but I hid it under my sleeve before I smiled at him.

"What's up, boy wonder?" I asked.

Harry just looked at me before sighing as he returned his gaze to the fire which was burning dimly. So I tried a different approach.

"What's on your mind?" I asked him. "You can talk to me about anything you know, since I used you after my mum…" I sighed and looked away from him. "You don't have to be quiet and brooding or keep things bottled up,"

Again Harry looked at me but this time not solemnly but with a small smile on his face. "It's not something that's easy to talk about," he said slowly. He then stopped and thought for a moment. "Rebecca, how much do you know about your parents? About Sirius and your mum?"

I shrugged. "As much as I assume anyone else might know. What they were like when they were younger, how they met, how they fell in love, how they broke up, when I was conceived, which was gross," I commented. "Why?"

Harry sighed and looked sown at his shoes. "I just… I learnt something about my Dad and it's sort of… hit me hard,"

"Like?"

"My mum used to hate him… It makes me wonder why they got together. I just got that he wouldn't leave her alone and she hated him," Harry told me as his shoulders drooped.

"Did you ever think that she might have loved him underneath and just never realized it?" I asked as I looked down at him.

He straightened and looked at me confused. "How d'you mean?"

"Well," I began, trying to think about how to word it. "It was kinda the same for my parents, just not that extreme. I think it's just, our dads just acted like jerks and toerags because that's what was expected, but they never meant it. I think our mums hated our dads for doing it, for being obnoxious, but loved who they really were, loved that they were actually sweet to them and would have done anything for them," I explained. "Love and people aren't always black and white,"

"Sirius told me something like that," Harry smiled.

"Great minds think alike," I smiled, before lightly ruffling up his hair. "Besides our dads couldn't have been that bad, or they wouldn't have had Lupin as a friend or have ever ended up married," I pointed out as I stood. "Well, I'm going to bed. Night, Harry,"

"Yeah, night," Harry called.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Sort of filler for now. <strong>

**Review! And if you're going to flame me, please be nice about it. **


	19. Escape

The next morning, we, Harry and I, were called into Umbitch's office for some tea, and a little 'talk'. It was all suspicious, but what made it even more so was that Harry and I were brought in together. I mean, aren't you supposed to do these 'talks' one person at a time?

When Harry and I hesitantly arrived at her office, she was sitting at her desk, smiling sweetly at us as if the last year or so hadn't happened. She then directed us to sit in the chairs in front of her desk, offering us a drink.

"Nothing, thank you," Harry said, eyeing her as she continued to be cheery.

I didn't say anything as I sat. I merely watched her silently.

"I wish you'd have a cup of tea with me," she repeated smiling.

"… Fine," Harry sighed.

She immediately smiled again before she got up and poured some sugary tea into a cup and handing it to him. "There," Then she turned to me. "And you, dear? Lemon or cream?" she asked.

"No thank you," I said quietly, my eyes not leaving hers.

"But you must have something," she insisted, and as I watched her, I could see her composure beginning to slip.

"I don't like tea. Never have really," I admitted.

"You need to try it then," she insisted, pouring me a cup and sticking it in my hands. "Try it. It's better warm," she told me.

I smiled at her and brought it to my lips, and when she turned away from me to return to her seat, I set it back down in my lap. Yes, I'm going to drink the bloody tea that the mad homicidal woman is insisting me to drink. I'm not that bloody thick!

"Well, now, Mr. Potter, Miss Sherwood…" Umbitch smiled as she sat down in he seat behind her desk. "I thought we ought to have a little chat after the distressing events of this past week,"

Harry and I looked at each other, but we didn't say anything.

"Come now, you must drink. Is the tea good, Miss Sherwood?" Umbitch smiled as she looked over at me. Her insistence that we drink our drinks was putting me on edge, and made me wonder if there was something in these drinks. After all, this was Umbitch. So I sighed and took a 'drink' making sure it couldn't get through my lips. It seemed to do her as her smile widened.

"Good," she whispered as her smile changed. "Very good. Now then, where is Albus Dumbledore?"

Harry's quick answer of 'No' made Umbitch's composure crack further, but she quickly made us drink 'more' of our tea again.

"Now, Mr. Potter, lets not play childish games," Umbitch giggled. "I know that you know where he's gone. You and Dumbledore have been in this together from the beginning. Consider your position, Mr. Potter …"

"I don't know where he is," Harry repeated.

I watched closely as Harry took a sip from his cup, and realized he was pretending just like I was.

"Miss Sherwood?"

I was surprised that she asked me, though I assume that it was because Harry might have told me and I would spill. Yeah.

"I don't know," I told her before whispering; "I wish I did,"

"Very well," Umbitch smiled again, though she looked displeased. "In that case, you will kindly tell me the whereabouts of Sirius Black,"

I instantly froze, my cup just in front of my lips. I knew why she wanted us to drink up so badly. Veritaserum. It made anyone who drank it speak the truth and keep speaking it no matter what until the effects wore off! She was using it on us to ask questions about Dumbledore and Dad's whereabouts. If any of this stuff got into my and Harry's systems, we'd be spilling out everything until hell froze over! About Dad, the Order, about everything.

I coughed a little, causing Umbitch to look over at me.

"Sorry, the wrong pipe you know," I smiled.

Umbridge just glared at me before she slowly stood, leaning her hand on her desk as she leaned toward us, her temper rising. "Let me remind both of you that it was I who almost caught the criminal Black in the Gryffindor fire in October. I know perfectly well it was you two that he was meeting with," she said, looking down at me, then back at Harry. "I repeat… where is Sirius Black?"

"No idea," Harry nearly shouted. "Haven't got a clue,"

"Miss Sherwood?" Umbridge asked, turning to me.

"Well, last I knew, Sirius Black was at Azkaban, and then he came here to kill Harry, and then he escaped and disappeared, but I also heard that he helped break his cousin out of Azkaban and then they came to my house to kill my mother, unfortunately my father was there to get murdered as well," I growled.

"You would do well to learn to keep your tongue behind your teeth before it gets cut off, Miss Sherwood," Umbitch threatened, her temper spiking.

"You asked," I smiled. "Although, I think if you made it less obvious that there was Veritaserum in the tea you would have gotten more out of us," I growled as I stood from my seat.

"How dare you!" Umbitch shrieked, only to be knocked back into her seat as the whole room shook as a loud 'BOOM!' came from below us.

Seconds later Umbitch dismissed us and ran out of the room. Harry and I looked at each other, then following a few moments later. We ran downstairs to find the Great Hall filled with dozens of fireworks were zooming all around us. Dragons soaring near the ceiling, pink Catherine wheels whirling everywhere, rockets with silver stars, and exploding firecrackers. It was pure mayhem.

I could see Filch and Umbridge staring wildly above themselves in horror as the chaos ensued in front of them, and every time Filch or Umbridge tried to do something, they'd double in number or exploded. Everyone who was in or near the Great Hall was laughing hysterically, except maybe the Slytherins who were mostly being chased by various rockets.

I felt Harry take my hand and I hurried over with him to where Fred and George were laughing their heads off from atop their brooms.

"Ready for the big finale, Fred?"

"Ready when you are!"

I watched as George threw a fat, lit, explosive into the air where it exploded, turning into a giant animated dragon. It slunk around the Hall until it caught sight of Umbridge who took off running. I laughed as she ran away looking more like a pink penguin. Suddenly, the dragon finally caught up with her outside of the Hall, swallowing her before the dragon exploded, destroying all of the Educational Decrees and leaving Umbitch look all disheveled. The Weasley twins, cackling and hollering with laughter, sped past her and flew up into the skin, leaving a large 'W' behind as their signature. Everyone poured into the courtyard and started cheering and shouting happily for the twins, and I knew that I'd have to thank them next time I saw them.

I turned back to Harry, only to watch him fall to the ground, staring off like he was daydreaming something horrible. I ran over to him, dropping to my knees and ignoring the glaring girls around me as I tried to get Harry's attention, even placing a hand on his cheek to get him to look at me.

Finally, Harry's eyes focused on me, looking scared and wide eyed until he said the one word that set me into motion.

"Sirius,"

I helped Harry to his feet and we grabbed Ron and Hermione, pulling them inside. Harry immediately began to explain what he had seen, making my insides drop as we raced up the stairs. It wasn't possible. Voldemort couldn't have Dad! I kept telling myself this in my head he couldn't have left Grimmauld Place, he just couldn't! He was reckless but he was stupid!

"Harry, are you sure?" Hermione asked.

"I saw it!" Harry shouted. "It's just like with Mr. Weasley! It's the same door I've been dreaming about for months, only I couldn't remember where I'd seen it before! Sirius said Voldemort was after something, something he didn't have last time, and it's in the Department of Mysteries!"

"Harry, please just listen!" Hermione shouted. Harry finally stopped running up the stairs and turned around. I was a little thankful that we had stopped and let my lungs breath as Hermione continued to speak. "What if Voldemort meant for you to see this? What if he's only hurting Sirius because he's trying to get to you?"

"What if he is?" Harry asked. "I'm supposed to just let him die? Hermione, he's Rebecca's real dad and the only family I've got left!"

"Stop it!" I shouted suddenly, tired of hearing this life or death crap. "Stop it the pair of you! Harry, we need to establish whether Dad _really_ has left the Headquarters!"

"I've told you, I saw-" Harry began but I cut him off.

"Harry, we need to check first," I said desperately. I was trying to hold back crying in desperation. Couldn't they see this was my Dad we were talking about who was supposedly in danger? I had to find out if he was all right! But nothing Harry was talking about seemed to be about finding a way to speak to Dad. It was about Harry's saving people thing or who knows what. "I don't want to lose him either," I told Harry.

"We haven't got time to waste, Rebecca. Sirius is being tortured _now_, in the Department of Mysteries! _That's_ where we need to go or we'll both loose him," Harry said firmly.

I sighed and looked away from him before nodding. "What do we do?"

"We'll have to use the Floo Network," Harry told us as we continued to run up the stairs and into Gryffindor Tower.

"But Umbridge has the chimneys under surveillance," Hermione pointed out.

"Not all of them!" Harry shouted.

Once we were changed and had what we needed, Harry led us to Umbitch's office which was currently vacant. Once I had gotten the door was unlocked, we entered and immediately circled around the fireplace.

"Alert the order if you can," Harry said, stepping toward the fireplace, whose flames were now green.

"Are you mental? We're going with you," Ron told him, making Harry stop.

"It's too dangerous," Harry said, shaking his head.

"Harry, he's my father, I'm going with you," I told him. "And when are you going to get it through you thick skull? We're in this together,"

"That you are," I spun to find Umbridge standing in the doorway, smoking a bit as she glared at the four of us, her wand aimed. "_Incarcerous_,"

Suddenly a rope wrapped around my throat tightly making my choke and gasp as I tried to get my fingers between the rope and my throat and wrench it off so I could breath. It didn't work, and I only ended up being yanked backwards and away from the fire as I heard people yelling around me.

I was felt the rope loosen on my throat eventually, and by then Harry was tied to Umbitch's chair. Ron and Hermione on the other hand were half tied by a rope and were stuck standing in the corner with Umbitch's wand aimed at them. I quickly pulled my wand out and was about to cast a spell when my wand jumped out of my hand.

"_Stupefy_!"


	20. I Must Not Tell Lies

I bloody hated my head, especially since it was pounding so much at that moment as I raised it off the floor.

"Caught this one trying to help the Weasley girl," I glanced up as Draco walked into the room, pushing Neville in front of him.

I was suddenly yanked to my feet by an unknown source, making me hiss as my head pounded like an African drum. The rope that was still around my neck scraped across my skin as it moved across my skin until whoever was holding their wand to my throat held to the end of the rope.

In front of me, I found that the whole Inquisitorial Squad had their wands to Ron's, Hermione's, Luna's, Neville's, and Ginny's throats, while Harry was still tied to the chair. Umbitch walked over to me and smiled as if she had been talking to me of something sweet instead of being happy that I hadn't been killed by her Stunner spell. Umbitch then turned back to Harry and Bent over so that they were eye to eye with each other.

"You were going to Dumbledore, weren't you?" she asked sweetly.

"No," Harry said immediately.

"Liar!" I gasped when she slapped him across the face.

"You sent for me Headmistress," Snape interrupted as he entered the room, looking confused by the situation that greeted him.

"Ah, yes," Umbridge said, turning towards Snape. "The time has come for answers, whether he wants to give them or not. Have you bought the Veritaserum?"

"I'm afraid you have used up all my stores interrogating students, the last of it on Miss Chang," Snape said.

I saw the others look to each other shamefully, knowing that now they felt guilty for being so mean to her. Me? I would have acted the same way toward her regardless of her spilling or not. But now I understood what she had meant when she said; 'I don't know why I did it,' and 'It all just sort of poured out,' She had been given Veritaserum too.

"Unless you wish to poison him," Snape continued. "And I assure you, I would have the greatest sympathy if you did, I cannot help you,"

Snape moved to leave, but Harry yelled to him, stopping him in his tracks. "He's got Padfoot!" Harry shouted. "He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"

"Padfoot?" Umbridge asked frustrated. "What is Padfoot? And where what's hidden? What is he talking about Snape?"

Snape turned back around and looked Harry in the eye. Then he glanced up at Umbridge. "No idea," And he left.

I smiled at the doorway as Umbridge huffed angrily. I knew I had been nice to Snape in first year for a reason.

"Very well," Umbridge began. "You give me no choice, Potter. As this is an issue of Ministry security, you leave me with no alternative… the Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue,"

"That's illegal," Hermione exclaimed.

"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him," Umbridge told her, obviously trying to justice it to herself a she put the picture of the minister of her desk face down. "He never knew I ordered Dementors to go after Potter last summer," she continued with a bit of a mad smile on her face. "But he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same,"

She'd done it! She sent those Dementors after Harry and I. It was a right good thing I gave her all that trouble over the past year.

But I was pulled from my thoughts as I watched Umbitch raise her wand at Harry, about to say the curse. I couldn't stand it, the suspense, the pain filled cries that I knew were going to come. I couldn't let them happen. "Alright!" I yelled, causing Umbridge to jump and then pull her wand back as she eyed me.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I'll tell you what Harry said, what it meant," I sighed, as if sad that I was doing this. "I'll tell you where it is,"

"Where what is? What was Mr. Potter talking about?" Umbitch asked, looking excited.

"Dumbledore's secret weapon," I told her simply.

Umbridge put down her wand and began to smile at me before her smile disappeared as she seemed to realize something. "Why should I believe you, Miss Sherwood? You've been rebellious against me all year," she asked as she raised her wand at me.

I rolled my eyes, taking a casual pose. "Because of one simple thing, Professor Umbridge. I like to be on the wining side," I told her. "Why would I be on the side of a bunch of teenagers when I could be on the Ministry's side?" I asked.

"Agreed, Cornelius will be most pleased," Umbridge nodded excitedly, her mad smile returning. "But if you trick me you will be punished for treason," she threatened. I nodded and the smile appeared yet again. "You will take me to this weapon,"

I nodded in agreement as she untied Harry, saying it would be best to bring him with us to make sure he didn't get away and so that he could see the demise of Dumbledore. She then grabbed the end of my rope from the boy behind me and yanked me forward, and out the door with Harry, her wand pointed at us all the while.

I led Umbridge to the Entrance Hall and out of the school, heading towards the Forbidden Forest. I couldn't get too far away from her to talk to Harry and tell him what I was planning because Umbridge still had my rope in her hand; I didn't want to be strangled anymore and didn't want this to seem fishy.

"It's hidden in Hagrid's hut, is it?" Umbridge asked eagerly, practically in my ear since I could smell her sweet honey breath.

"Of course not," I said scathingly, rolling my eyes. "Hagrid might have set it off accidentally,"

"Yes, yes, he would have done, of course, the great half-breed oaf," she muttered glaring at the empty hut.

When we entered the Forbidden Forest Umbridge immediately made Harry and I walk ahead of her without wands, though she still kept me close. "I can't just go in there without a bloody wand," Harry said in defiance.

"The Ministry, Mr. Potter, places a rather higher value on my life than yours, I'm afraid," Umbridge smiled happily in response. "Go on now," I glared at her from the corner of my eye before she nudged me with her wand, forcing me forward and next to Harry.

We walked for ages, getting deeper and deeper into the Forest as we neared our destination. It was freaking me out whenever I heard a noise as we walked through the forest, Umbridge muttering to herself. What if we were attacked? I had no doubt Umbridge would just leave us.

"How much further?" Umbridge asked after ten minutes of walking.

"Not far," I told her, trying to be calm. "It had to be somewhere students wouldn't find it accidentally,"

"What are you doing?" Harry whispered as he knocked into me.

"Something," I whispered back with a smile.

Then I saw it. The tree Grawp was supposed to be attached to, but unfortunately, the rope law frayed on the ground, and Grawp was gone. I froze and turned wide eyed toward Harry who saw the same thing I did and stared right back at me.

"Well? Where is this weapon?" Umbridge asked as she walked up to usher wand in hand until understanding crossed her plump features. "There isn't one is there? You were trying to trick me,"

Harry and I looked at each other, and then back to her, not sure where to go from here. Umbridge then suddenly sighed sadly looking like she wanted to cry.

"You know, I really hate children. You really are the most untidy creatures. Lord knows I tried to help you, to instill discipline and respect for decorum. I've tried my very best to bring order, yet at every turn I've been face with chaos. I mean _look what you've done to me_!" she exclaimed as she gestured to her charred blackened self. "Sometimes I don't know if I can take it anymore!" she exclaimed, but then she took a breath and her whole self became calm. "But I must," she nodded. "Authority must be upheld, and sometimes the ends do justify the means,"

I stared as her wide eyed as her words started to sink in. Was she saying that she was going to murder us? Had she really gone that loopy? Harry apparently thought so as he stepped in front of me.

"And certainly no one could blame me," Umbridge continued as she tried to justify what she was saying. "And if it falls to me to sort out this, to tie up the loose ends then so be it. The greater good," she muttered. "I will do what must be done,"

She was about to cast a spell when she was cut off by twigs breaking as something approached. I looked around until I saw a herd of centaurs standing nearby, watching us. Immediately, Umbridge yanked on my rope, causing me to stumble toward her until I was standing in front of her, acting as a human shield.

"You have no business here, centaur. This is a Ministry matter," Umbridge called to them.

But of course that only brought them closer. I mean, these guys were mad at the Ministry, Hagrid had said so, and you expect telling them this was a Ministry matter would make them just run? No, instead it made them aim arrows at us.

"Lower your weapons," Umbridge ordered angrily. "I warn you, under the law, as creatures of near-human intelligence-" I only saw the arrow drop to the ground as it was deflected, making me jump away from Umbridge, pulling at the rope around my next painfully. "How dare you!" I could hear Umbridge shriek. "You filthy half breed! _Incarcerous_!"

I watched as a rope shot past me and wrapped itself around the centaur I assume shot the arrow, bringing him down as it wrapped around his neck and torso, suffocating him. I surged forward to help him but was yanked off my feet and backwards until my back hit the ground. I groaned as I rolled onto my knees before looking up at Umbitch.

"Please! Please stop this!" I yelled at her.

"No! Enough!" Umbridge yelled. "I will have order!"

Suddenly Grawp appeared and snatched Umbridge up much the same way he had done to Hermione.

"Rebecca!" Harry dropped down next to me and cut off the roped from my neck using Umbridge's wand. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him as he helped me to my feet.

Immediately all of the centaurs ran past us and started trying to grab Umbridge and started shooting at Grawp to get him to drop her.

"Grawp! Drop her! Please!" I yelled to him.

He looked at me sadly and dropped Umbridge, stumbling backward as the centaurs grabbed Umbridge up.

"Potter! Sherwood! Do something!" Umbitch screamed desperately. "Tell them I mean no harm!"

"I'm sorry, professor," Harry said. "I must not tell lies,"

I chuckled to myself as her face froze in horror before she was carried off, her shouts quickly fading into the background.

"I must not tell lies," I muttered. "Harry, you're brilliant,"

Harry just smiled at me.

I then turned and looked back up at Grawp who was pulling arrows at of his arms. "Thanks, Grawp. Thank you," I smiled, getting a smile in return as he looked down at me.

"Rebecca, we need to go. Sirius," Harry reminded me.

With that, we were off and running toward the castle, ready to go get our wands back and save our fellow DA members, but while running back to the castle, we found them running toward us on the bridge.

"How'd you get away?" I asked.

"Puking Pastilles," Hermione answered. "It was positively horrible,"

"Told him I was hungry and wanted some sweets," Ron explained, handing Harry and I our wands back. "Course they told me to bugger off and ate the lot themselves," he chuckled.

"It was brilliant," Hermione commented.

"Don't sound so surprised. It's known to happen," Ron smiled.

"So how are we getting to London?" Neville asked, interrupting the cute Ron and Hermione moment, getting down to business.

"Look," Harry began. "It's not that I don't appreciate everything you've done, all of you, but I've got you into enough trouble as it is,"

He then proceeded to walk past everyone, I following, ready to grab his arm and whip him around, but Neville spoke first. "Dumbledore's Army's supposed to be about doing something real. Or was all that just words to you?"

Harry stared at Neville, not sure what to say.

"Maybe you don't have to do this all by yourself, mate," Ron said.

I could see Harry thinking before he sighed and looked up at me. "So how are all of us going to get to London?" Harry asked.

"We fly, of course," Luna answered with a smile.


	21. Gone

We eventually found enough Thestrals to fly us to London, since it was only Harry, Luna, Neville and I that could see them and it was getting late. But soon we were all off and flying on our own Thestral towards London. I don't know how long it took to get there or what time it was, but all I knew was that it was dark as we all flew over the houses and tall buildings to the center of the city.

When we entered the Ministry, it was empty and there was very little light compared to how it was during the day. We ran as Harry led us around the Ministry toward the lifts until we arrived at the Department of Mysteries.

It was the dark corridor Harry and I had been down the day of his hearing at the end of summer. Harry again ran down the halls until he stopped and ran to a certain door that he told us was the one he had been seeing.

We entered slowly to find ourselves in a dark room with tall bookcases with small orbs filling them all for as far as the eye could see in any direction. We followed Harry silently as he counted quietly to himself as he looked at each row's number until we reached the one he had been looking for.

"He should be here," Harry told us.

"Oh no," I breathed to myself.

It was a trap. Dad wasn't here… and we were in deep trouble.

"Harry," Neville called and I turned to see him looking at one of the orbs. "It's got your name on it,"

I walked over and looked at the tag that was attacked to the foot of the stand the orb was sitting on and read it, cocking my head to the side.

_S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D._

_Dark Lord and Harry Potter(?)_

Slowly, Harry stepped past me and stared at it. The closer he got to it, the brighter it seemed to glow until Harry picked it up from it's stand and it seemed to have a little star in the center. Harry stared at if for a long time, as if entranced, I however, was a little more perceptive. Around Death Eaters were beginning to appear, walking toward us slowly until they got a little too close for my liking.

"Harry," I called as I lifted my wand and aimed it at the closet Death Eater in my aisle. Quickly, Harry appeared and stood in front of me and aimed his wand at the Death Eater as well.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry asked.

"You know, you really should learn to tell the difference between dreams and reality," Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, smiled as he pulled off his mask. "You saw only what the Dark Lord wanted you to see. Now hand me the prophecy,"

"If you do anything to us, I'll break it," Harry threatened.

A familiar cackle came from the darkness behind Lucius, making my skin crawl and my blood boil as I watched Bellatrix Lestrange emerge from the darkness, smiling widely. "He knows how to play. Itty, bitty, baby, Potter,"

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Neville murmured.

"Neville Longbottom, is it?" Bellatrix smiled. "How's Mum and Dad?"

"Better, now they're about to be avenged," Neville growled as he lunged forward with his wand. I would have been glad to have watched him kill her, but unfortunately Harry held him back.

"Alright. Calm down," Lucius told everyone, holing his hands up in the air.

"Well to do that you're going to have to use more than kind words to rein in that bitch, cousin," I smiled brightly as I glared directly at Bellatrix.

"What did you just call me, blood traitor?" she growled aiming her wand at me as I aimed mine at her. But we were both held back, making us both growl and glare at each other again. "Bitty Potter protecting you is he, cousin. I'll kill him just like your mum,"

"Like hell you will," I growled, flicking my wand at her, sending a near deadly Stunner Charm at her which she deflected back at me. I used Protego which absorbed my spell before raising my wand again, however Harry pushed me back behind him growling at me to stop.

"Now Bellatrix, Rebecca. Let's all just calm down, shall we?" Lucius asked as he looked between us. "All we want is that prophecy,"

"Why did Voldemort need me to come and get this?" Harry asked, getting back on track.

"You dare speak his name?" Bellatrix spat. "You filthy half-blood!"

"It's all right. He's just a curious lad, aren't you?" Lucius said, speaking quickly to keep everyone calm and from exploding. "Prophecies can only be retrieved by those about whom they are made," Lucius explained. "Which is lucky for you, really,' Lucius commented before he remembered himself. "Haven't you always wondered… the reason for the connection between you and the Dark Lord? Why he was unable to kill you… when you were just an infant? Don't you want to know the secret of your scar? All the answers are there, Potter, in your hand. All you have to do is give it to me. Then I can show you everything,"

Harry looked down at the glowing orb in his hand before looking up at Lucius. "I've waited fourteen years,"

"I know," Lucius sighed sadly.

"I guess I can wait a little longer," Harry smiled. "Now!"

"_Stupefy_! _Stupefy_!" I yelled as I aimed at Bellatrix, before growling when I missed her.

We all took off, unfortunately in different directions, and I could hear as my friends fought against the Death Eaters, shouting spells and hearing adult yells. I ran by myself, having been separated, and I shot anything that wisped, using any horrible defensive spell that popped into my head. I ran hard until I was tripped up and went rolling down an aisle until I came to a stop with Antonin Dolohov standing over me smiling, his wand aimed at my throat. I smiled up at him and shot a spell at him that sent him flying backwards.

I took off running again only to knock into someone else, thankful to recognize Hermione's shriek as I did. Everyone was here thankfully, but as I heard the sounds of wisping, I looked up through the aisle to see Death Eaters wisping toward us in a huge clump.

"_Reducto_!" Ginny shouted, aiming her wand at them. There was a huge explosion and everything went silent… until the orbs started to fall to the floor and the shelves started to fall into each other.

"I think you broke it," I murmured to Ginny.

"Get back to the door!" Harry shouted, grabbing my arm and yanking me around so that I'd follow him as he ran. We all took off, following Harry as orbs fell to the ground behind us, and shelves started to domino. We took several turned that brought us in the live of domino-ing shelves until I spotted the door out of here at the end of the row. I ran even faster until I was directly behind Harry and ran through the door after him.

But I found myself falling at an alarming rate after I had made it through the door until I shouted; "_Impedimenta_!" I stopped short of the floor for a few seconds before falling the extra foot to the ground with a huff.

"Department of Mysteries," Ron murmured beside me. "They got that bit right, didn't they?"

I nodded until my eyes caught on a tall slender stone arch in the center of the room at the top of a stone hill in the center of the room we were in. IN the archway was a strange film that moved and flowed like smoke but didn't move out from the archway at all. And I also heard voice coming from it, though I couldn't understand any of them, because there were to many.

"The voices," Harry murmured as I watched him step toward it in fascination. "Can you tell what they're saying?"

"There aren't any voices, Harry," Hermione told him, making me roll my eyes at her. "Let's get out of here,"

"I hear them too," Luna murmured, stepping beside me.

"Harry, it's just an empty archway," Hermione insisted.

"I guess it's just another thing the great Hermione can't see or hear like Harry, Luna and I can," I smiled.

"Please, Harry," Hermione said, ignoring me.

Suddenly I heard the door we had come through slam open and the sound of wisping as the Death Eaters flew through and down at us.

"Get behind me!" Harry yelled.

All of ran behind him and aimed out wands at the ceiling, toward the attacking Death Eaters that had yet to appear. But when they did come, the attacked us from behind, knocking me over and to the ground before a foot slammed into my side. I cried out as my hair was pulled at roughly, bringing my head up for whoever to see until I heard a familiar laugh.

"Hello Rebecca," my stepfather smiled down at me before yanking me to my feet by my hair. I cried out and fought until his wand pressed painfully against my throat and he hissed at me.

I ignored him and looked around. Everyone, not just me, was now being held hostage by a Death Eater, except Harry who was looking around at all of us, the orb clutched in his hand. I was standing next to the archway, far enough from Harry to be of any help to either of us, but close enough that I could see his eyes harden as he glanced at who held me captive.

"Did you actually believe…" I looked up as Lucius came into view, smiling at Harry as he walked past him and to where my stepfather held me. "… or were you truly naive enough to think that children stood a chance against us?" he asked happily as he watched me before smiling up at Gregory. "I'll make this simple for you, Potter," Lucius smiled as he turned back to Harry, his hand outstretched toward him. "Give me the prophecy now… or watch your friends die,"

"Watch my little stepdaughter die just like her mother," Gregory murmured into my ear.

"Don't give it to him, Harry!" I heard Neville yell before I heard something hit him.

I looked at Harry desperately, begging him not to hand over the orb, though I kept quiet knowing my punishment for speaking would be much more sever it I did say anything. My heart sank though as I watched Harry looked to me before slowly hold out the prophecy, placing it in Lucius' hand.

Then something wonderful happened. A bright light, similar to the Death Eater's wisping, appeared next to me before Sirius appeared from it, glaring at Gregory. "Get away from my daughter," he growled before his fist flashed out and connected with Gregory's face, causing him to let go of me.

Then more white wisps appeared as the rest of the Order and began to fight the Death Eaters, freeing my friends.

"Rebecca, thank God!" Sirius smiled as he pulled me into his arms and checked me over. "I want you to get out of here, now!" Sirius told me quickly. "Get over to Harry and get out of here!"

I didn't have the chance to however, as I blocked a spell coming from a pissed off Gregory that would of hit Dad in the back. I pushed myself up and moved around Dad, shooting spells at my stepfather and now Lucius as they moved toward us, Lucius still holding the small dim orb in his hand. Then Dad joined the fight sending spells at Gregory mostly, apparently having some issues with him, not that I didn't. I glanced over at him only for a second, he was a strong fighter, I knew that by how well he fought the two Death Eaters, but I couldn't help but worry.

"Why hello Sirius!" Gregory called happily. "How's Ambrosia? Oh wait, I was the one that married her!"

"Shut up!" Sirius growled, sending a green curse at him that Gregory narrowly missed.

"I'd tell her you said hello, but I'm afraid she's dead," Gregory laughed.

"You son of a bitch!" Sirius cried, fighting fiercer until bright red Stunner charm hit Gregory straight in the chest, throwing him backwards.

At the same time I summoned the orb from Lucius' hand causing it to shatter as I flew into the air toward me.

"NO!" Lucius cried angrily, throwing spells at me angrily that I blocked easily until a spell flew past Dad and hit Lucius sending him flying backward. I looked over to see Harry running toward us, standing on the other side of Sirius.

"Fantastic," Sirius smiled.

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

A bright green curse hit Sirius square in the chest. He flinched from it before he stumbled back a few steps, his eyes landing on Harry and I as he gasped softly. I reached out for him as he smiled, letting out one last breath and fell back into the veil of the archway.

There was a moment of silence before Harry starting screaming, trying to run at the archway, only to be held back by Lupin. "No! No!"

I however, felt my heart crack, just like with Mum, and just like last time, I didn't have time to cry because I knew that voice, that voice that had said that spell that had killed both of my parents, that had sent Neville's parents spiraling into madness.

I turned and spotted Bellatrix smiling as me as she moved out of the room nearly unnoticed by everyone. I took off after her, leaving Harry behind. She needed to pay, she needed to feel the pain that she had caused me, had caused everyone she had ever hurt. She need to die.

"I killed Sirius Black," Bellatrix sang as she ran away from me through the hallways and around corners, taunting me. "You coming to get me?" I chased after her until I had a shot as we entered the Atrium.

"_CRUCIO_!"

A bright red light shot from my wands and hit her square in the back, causing her to shriek as she crumbled to the floor. I ran at her until I was standing over her, kicking her wand off to the side as she turned over to smile up at me.

"What are you going to do to me, little Becky?" she asked happily.

"You killed them," I growled at her. "You killed them both! You murdered my mum and now Dad!" I screamed at her.

"You're just as weak as he was," Bellatrix replied. "Too sensitive for a Black's own good! Neither of them deserved to live and neither do you,"

"_Crucio_!" I screamed.

Bellatrix's smile left her face as her eyes rolled back into her head and her body stared to convulse and she started to scream and shriek. It was sickening. My spell soon lost it's power until Bellatrix was smiling up at me, huffing a little.

"You don't have the stomach," she tittered as she started to get up.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" I yelled, and her body froze. "If I can't do it, then the Dementors will," I growled down at her frozen face.

"Really?"

My body felt like it was being torn apart as my body morphed against my will until I felt myself turn into Bellatrix. I collapsed to the ground in a huff before I stood again, trying desperately to change myself back. I watched as Bellatrix, the real one, stood and smiled down at me before skipping toward one of the fireplaces and disappearing in a puff of green flames.

"_Crucio_!"

For a moment, I was in pure agony, my body freezing like in the dead of winter and then burning like the hottest pit of Hades while it felt like it was being pulled apart and sewn back together again. I collapsed as the feeling stopped as soon as it started, rolling over to see Harry running at me, aiming his wand down at me, anger and pain in his eyes. I didn't dear say anything, afraid that if I did Harry would torture me again or worse… kill me… after all, I did look like the woman who had killed his last bit of family and as much as I wanted to morph back, I couldn't.

Harry glared down at me before he started to roll his neck, like he had a kink in it or something, and his eyes started to fog over. And then I understood why as another person wisped into the room.

Before me stood a snakelike figure, his face white and gaunt from underneath his black hood. His scarlet eyes could be visible in the dim light as they glinted in contrast to his white skin. Voldemort was standing right in front of me, wand drawn, and ready to kill at any moment.

"Do it. Kill her," I could hear him whisper into Harry's ear. Luckily, Harry's eyes cleared and he spun on Voldemort, only to have his wand wrenched from his hand with a wave of Voldemort's hand. "So weak," Voldemort hissed at Harry.

I stood slowly on wobbly legs and morphed back to 'myself' and stood next to Harry and glared at Voldemort, or at least gave him as close a look as I dared without my wand in hand.

Behind me, I heard flames crackle, and turned to see Dumbledore appear from one of the fireplaces, walking up and past Harry and I, never taking his eyes off Voldemort. "It was foolish of you to come here tonight, Tom. The Aurors are on their way,"

"By which time I shall be gone, and you… shall be dead," Voldemort smiled.

With a move of Dumbledore's hand, Harry and I were knocked over, sending us sliding until we hit hard into a pillar which I pull Harry behind as he stared at the now dueling Dumbledore and Voldemort. Two dazzling spells were flashing between the two, caught together into one long line that Voldemort was desperately trying to break so it would hit Harry, but only ended up in jolts hitting randomly around the room.

Soon Voldemort let the spell go and took the spell that Dumbledore had sent at him and turned it into a giant flaming basilisk which Dumbledore fought until the snake recoiled and fell before exploding toward Voldemort. Unfortunately, he blocked it, only to be captured in a large ball of water which Dumbledore held with in the power of his wand, holding it together as Voldemort tried to break free.

Harry however, stood, wand in hand, and followed Dumbledore as Dumbledore tried to keep the orb of water together, still holding Voldemort. I called after him, which earned him a kick in the chest as a force knocked him back and near a newspaper booth. I jumped up as the orb of water popped, releasing Voldemort, running over to Harry while stooping low to scoop up my wand.

I looked up in time to watch as Voldemort gathered the darkness around him and sent it at Dumbledore in a spell that I had never seen before, but Dumbledore easily protected the three of us from. Then Voldemort gathered up the energy around it and sent it out in a massive shockwave, knocking Dumbledore and I backward and shattering all the windows and anything else glass in the room. And just as I thought he was done, Voldemort raised his wand at us again, summoning all of the glass on the floor to him before sending it at Dumbledore. Harry grabbed me and covered my head, protecting me from the glass shards that we both knew were coming. But then something soft blew past us.

Sand.

I looked up at an angry Voldemort as the sand stopped coming at us and Harry helped me stand. Dumbledore stood before us, wand drawn and ready of the next attack… but it never came. Voldemort disappeared in a whirl of sand and everything grew uncomfortably quiet.

We weren't done yet.

Suddenly, Harry screamed and fell to the ground, squirming and groaning in pain as his eyes fogged over before glinting red. I dropped down beside him utterly confused until a voice I knew too well issued from Harry's mouth.

"_You've lost, old man_," Voldemort smiled a horrible smile with Harry's face.

"Harry," I whispered, moving towards him. Voldemort was taking over his body and there was nothing I could do. Harry was struggling physically as well as mentally for control over his own body, curling back like a snake and thrashed around as he cried out.

"_Kill me_," he begged, lifting his head to stare into my eyes, but this wasn't Harry- it was Voldemort staring at me.

"Harry," Dumbledore began, attempting to contact him through his struggle for control. "It's not how you are alike- it's how you are not,"

Harry cried out again before he stopped, laying on the floor breathing heavily. His eyes flashed until they were Harry's, though they were still cloudy as they stared past Dumbledore. I looked over my shoulder and found what he was looking at. Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna and Ginny had all come into the room and were now staring at him, unsure of what was going on.

When I looked back down at Harry, I found him looking up at me, his eyes foggy, but still staring straight at me as if he was looking into me. I smiled at him, as a tear fell out of the corner of my eye. No matter what, I knew he'd be able to break this.

"You're the weak one…" Harry whispered, not to me, but to Voldemort who still held tight his hold on Harry. "You'll never know love… or friendship… and I feel sorry for you,"

In one last attempt, Harry cried out again before rolling over, and arching his back as darkness surged out of him, until it materialized as Voldemort standing over him. "You're a fool, Harry Potter… and you will lose everything," he hissed.

Behind me I could hear as more fireplaces flamed up as people entered, some gasping as Voldemort looked from Harry to them smiling evilly before disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

"He's back," the minister whispered in shock and horror.

I could have sworn Dumbledore rolled his eyes as he helped Harry stand, before turning to Fudge. "You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts," he said. "You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you… half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think well shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the Headmaster will find me,"

I smiled despite all that had happened tonight. This was why I loved Dumbledore so much. Gets to the point, knows what's best, and will show you up in the end if you aren't careful.

For the next half hour, Dumbledore discussed everything with Fudge while the Daily Prophet took pictures and listened in. Everyone else was sent to Madame Pomfrey to be checked over, except Tonks and Lupin. Tonks was in serious condition and Lupin had refused to leave her. I like, Lupin, refused to leave Harry, but as silence surrounded me, my mind wandered.

Mum was dead. Bellatrix had killed her. It was my stepfather's fault. Dad was dead. Bellatrix had killed him. It was Harry's fault. Bellatrix was still out there. My stepfather was still out there.

"… Rebecca," I looked up as Dumbledore walked over to us. "Take this Portkey," He held out the head of the wizard statue to us. I merely stared at it as he put a spell on it. When it finished glowing, I numbly reached out to touch it. "I shall see you in a few minutes," said Dumbledore quietly. "One… two… three…"

After a moment, the Atrium of the Ministry vanished and I was in Dumbledore's office. The portkey fell away from my hand as I stood shakily for a moment before I slowly sank to my knees.

All I could think was; 'It was a trap… It was all a trap…' Why had I just given in when Harry had been so keen on just running off to the Ministry? Why had I let him convince me to just run off to the Ministry without checking if Dad had been alright? Harry was the one who had led us to the Ministry, he was the one who had gotten Dad killed, he was the one my Dad cared about more…

Anger suddenly flared up in me and I stood up.

"You," I growled, pointing at him, my other hand a fist at my side.

Harry turned and looked at me looking confused as my tone. I felt the tears in my eyes again as I went over to Harry. I pushed him backward, knocking him off balance, before pushing him again, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"You and your damn arrogance!" I yelled at him. "I tried to tell you it was a trap! I tried to warn you, but no, you wouldn't believe me!"

He moved back and away from me, his hands up in surrender, but I followed anyway, hatred and pain flaring in me. I hit him this time, punched in him on the chest as I glared into his eyes. I just wanted him to feel the hurt I did.

"You had already lost your parents. I had only just finally found my father, one that didn't hate me! But it didn't matter, I knew from the beginning I was only second to you, his precious godson! Not his own daughter! And now he's dead!" I screamed as tears blurred my vision. I hit him again and again on the chest until I felt Harry's hands wrap around my wrists, stopping me. "I lost him as soon as I found him! I lost both of them!" I cried sagging until my knees hit the ground.

I felt Harry kneel down in front of me and pull me toward him until my face was pressed against his shoulder. I felt his arms go around me but I didn't have the energy to throw him off.

"I'm sorry," was all I heard him say. "I'm so sorry,"

"I know," I whimpered. "It sucks,"

I wanted him to be just as evil as the rest of them, so I could hit him and be as mad as I wanted to be… but he was sorry, I knew he was, and I couldn't be mad at him, no matter what.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, this time into my hair as he rubbed my back while I sobbed.

I heard flames crackle behind Harry and I, and I knew Dumbledore was here, I pulled away from Harry and wiped my eyes and nose on my sleeve before using my other sleeve to wipe at Harry's shoulder. I stood then, not looking at either of them, not even when Dumbledore placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Come, let's talk," Dumbledore told us, moving to the back of his office, to a room behind his desk where he sat in a throne like chair, leaving the small couch like seat for Harry and I. I sat down on the opposite end as Harry, pulling my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them, staring at the floor.

"I know how you feel, Harry," Dumbledore started, speaking to Harry.

What a surprise.

"No, you don't," Harry answered right away. "It's my fault,"

Guilt hit me. Somehow, me saying it was fine, but him saying it made me feel so guilty and sad.

"No, the fault is mine," Dumbledore told him, drawing my attention. "Sirius was a brave, clever and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger," Dumbledore sighed. "I knew it was only a matter of time before Voldemort made the connection between you. I thought by distancing myself from you, as I have done all year he'd be less tempted, and therefore you might be more protected,"

"The prophecy said; 'Neither one can live while the other one survives,' It means one of us is gonna have to kill the other, in the end," Harry said, making me look up at him.

"Yes," Dumbledore answered finally.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"For the same reason you tried to save Sirius," Dumbledore told him. "The same reason your friends saved you. After all these years, after all you've suffered… I didn't want to cause you any more pain. I cared too much about you," Dumbledore admitted. "That's the distinguishing power you have that he doesn't, Harry- love. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you,"

It was cute, and probably true that that had been what save Harry tonight, but all of this did make me feel better, and I could tell that Harry wanted to say something against it, but thought better of it. Dumbledore let us leave then, leading us to the door of his office before he spoke again.

"Every one of us has a part to play in the story of lives," Dumbledore began again, drawing my eyes to his. "Though we find tasks set to us sometimes difficult, sometimes unwanted, sometimes draining, we all must do our part. Only then do we realize our purpose in this world and see that there is always something worth fighting for. We must use our gifts, whether they be power, or wisdom, or love, for what they are intended for and live with the consequences they may bring,"

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><p><strong>Author's Note: So much happened and it was so sad! I almost started crying when i wrote the end of this chapter because i was listening to a sad song at the same time. <strong>

**Review, please.**


	22. Worth Fighting For

By the last day of school, Hogwarts was put back to normal, though Luna was still looking for her shoes which she had lost to the Nargels. Dumbledore was made Headmaster again, officially, all teachers were reinstated, and the many pictures that had been stripped from the walls were replaced. Fudge also resigned from being the minister and was replaced, and hopefully for the better this time.

The death of my parents within the same year had hit me hard, and I hadn't talked to Harry the whole last week of school, though I didn't ignore him. I had also found out that both of my parents had had a will, Dumbledore dealing with Sirius' and Kingsley dealing with my mum's before my stepfather had gotten his hands on it to change it.

My mum had left me as much as she could that was hers, mostly a separate vault in Gringotts that my father hadn't known about. She had also given a few things that were still at the house my stepfather had abandoned that I didn't expect to ever get.

My dad on the other hand had given me co-ownership of Grimmauld Place, the other owner being Harry. The only reason I wanted it, and didn't just give it all to Harry was that I needed a place to live, and that Dad had lived there, even if it had been unhappily. I also got co-ownership to Kreacher, which I didn't look forward to considering how much Dad had despised him.

So now I held my black satchel, only of the last things that reminded me of my mum, since she had given it to me in fourth year, and walked beside Hermione as we all made our way to the train.

"I've been thinking about something Dumbledore said to me," Harry spoke up, from the other side of Hermione.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"That even though we've got a fight ahead of us we've got one thing that Voldemort doesn't have," Harry answered.

"Yeah?" Ron asked.

"Something worth fighting for,"

"_A girl worth fighting for_," I sang, causing everyone else to chuckle.

Harry looked over me at me and smirked. "Mulan?"

"Of course, I wouldn't fight for you, girl wonder," I smiled.

**THE END  
><strong>_For now…_

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Next up; <em>Rebecca and the Half-Blood Prince<em>! **

**I hope you have enjoyed reading my stories and don't regret reading them so far. Any questions can be put into reviews and I'll try to answer them on my bio page thing. ****Review, but please no flaming!**

**WARNING: The sixth story will take a while longer to put up because I have yet to finish writing it.**

**"Tenna' ento lye omenta!" 'Until we meet again!'**


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